Thieves melt stolen jewellery to cover their tracks

FIRST ON 7: Thieves are melting down stolen jewellery to avoid being linked to their crime.

Detectives say the jewels are often destroyed before the owner even knows they have been robbed.

The thieves then sell the nugget on to gold buyers or pawn stores.

Senior Constable Isa Tolete admits it is making it harder for law enforcement and police to track down where the jewellery may have come from.

Dieter and Larisa Sprenger are the recent targets of jewellery thieves.

They went away to celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary and returned home to discover all of Larisa’s gold jewellery had been stolen from their home.

Mr Sprenger says the thieves were obviously experienced.

“All the golden bits that were not genuine were left behind so they knew what they were looking for,” he says.

He says it was difficult to come to terms with as 60 years of precious heirlooms has been taken.

“Nobody died because of it but my wife had a bit of a nervous breakdown and she finds it very hard to talk about,” Mr Sprenger says.

A taskforce has been set up and Operation Lima Cypress is cracking down on the crime. Detectives have since arrested 22 people on 88 charges.

“People were going in and selling stolen jewellery, trying to get rid of them and trying to gain a quick return,” Constable Tolete says.

Seven gold buyers were cautioned for dodgy record keeping, with one antique dealer being shut down.

Police are planning a public viewing in the coming months in the hope they will be able to return some of the stolen property to its rightful owners.