Johannesburg - It sounds like a story straight out of Hollywood – a diamond heist where everything goes wrong.
But for the gang of six who set themselves up as brokers helping a diamond dealer sell his jewels, but planning to rob him, the events of October 31 were no movie script.
It seemed a simple plan. They met diamond dealer Moshe Tager and his wife Razia Bux months in advance of the heist, taking them to see buyers and gaining their trust.
The plan was that when a gunman entered a shop in Robertsham, stealing a suitcase containing R10 million worth of jewels, the gang members would be among the victims and would not be suspected of being involved.
But even the best-laid plans often go awry.
According to statements made by Tager and Bux at Booysens police station, several months before the robbery, they had met three men who took them to several meetings with buyers for their cut and polished diamonds and jewellery but no sale took place.
On a trip to Joburg in October, they were convinced to meet a buyer at one of the men’s shops in Robertsham. There they met four men and a woman who were involved in “the deal”. During the meeting Tager noticed the buyer go to the front of the shop and lock the door. Bux saw a man wearing a balaclava and carrying a gun come in the back door.
She screamed: “What’s going on here?”
The gunman shouted at everyone to lie on the floor and throw down their cellphones and keys.
Tager threw his brown Samsonite suitcase filled with cut and polished diamonds and jewellery to his wife on the other side of the counter but she could not run away with it as the door was locked.
The gunman told them to bind each other’s hands and feet with plastic cable ties.
The couple then heard banging on the front door.
It was a customer wanting to come into the shop.
The gunman, who was an employee at the shop, went to the door, took his balaclava off and tried to convince the customer nothing was wrong.
Bux saw his face.
The gunman panicked, grabbed the suitcase and Bux’s handbag and ran out the back of the shop.
The group waited three hours for the police to arrive before deciding to go to Booysens police station themselves.
While they were waiting, a man pulled up in a bakkie and told Bux he was a member of the Hawks and would help her recover her goods. He introduced himself as Sheik. Sheik, it would turn out, is a conman who police have linked to several different identities and at least 21 crimes.
He allegedly tricked one of the gang members who handed him the stolen bag.
According to members of the gang, who confessed to different parts of the crime, they had decided to rob Tager and Bux using a toy gun. An employee of the shop was to play the part of the gunman.
He said he had bought a balaclava, a stun gun and an air-powered pellet gun on the day of the robbery.
Everything went according to plan until the customer knocked on the door and the gunman lifted his balaclava.
When he rushed out the back of the shop, he put the suitcase of jewels and Bux’s bag on a steel shelf before running upstairs where he lived.
He was watching everyone leave for the police station three hours later when he got a call from a man calling himself Sheik Khalid.
Khalid told him he needed to fetch money from the stolen bag to bail out the rest of the gang because they had been arrested. The gunman told Khalid where he had left the bag of jewels.
When the shop owner was finished at the police station, Khalid also told him he needed to get money from the stolen bag to pay the police to release the other members of the gang.
The shop owner believed him and gave him the bag.
The next day, some of the gang members went to the police to confess to their role in the robbery.
The Hawks are investigating but nobody has been arrested.
What was stolen:
From the suitcase
* Four round brilliant diamonds.
* One 18-carat yellow-gold ladies’ necklace with diamonds.
* Four 18-carat white-gold diamond rings.
* One red-brown diamond.
* One pendant in 18-carat white gold in the shape of Africa with a large centre diamond.
* One platinum ring with a fancy-colour diamond.
* One parcel of diamonds.
* One 18-carat white-gold bracelet with diamonds of 3 carats.
* One 18-carat white-gold necklace and pendant with diamonds and tanzanite.
* Sapphires.
* One 18-carat white-gold necklace with 121 round white diamonds.
* 100 carats of small white diamonds.
* A box containing 20-carat emeralds.
* 20-carat fancy-colour diamonds.
* Two butterfly cut diamonds, one head-of-horse cut and assorted fancy-colour diamonds.
* Four semi-mount rings with 18-carat white gold and platinum set with 5-carat small diamonds.
* One 18-carat white-gold men’s ring.
From the handbag
* One Rado ladies’ watch.
* One tennis bracelet in 18-carat yellow gold with rubies.
* One tennis bracelet in 18-carat yellow-plated white gold with sapphires and diamonds.
* One ring in 18-carat white gold with white, green and yellow diamonds.
* One set of earrings in white gold with diamonds.
* One set of earrings in 18-carat gold with rubies, matching the ruby tennis bracelet.
* Documents and bank cards.
* Reading glasses.
* Sunglasses.
* A wallet with R2 000 cash.
The Star