The police are expressing grave concern over a developing trend which they believe involves teens stealing jewellery on the orders of criminals.

Top cop for the St Andrew Central Division, Superintendent Derrick 'Cowboy' Knight, said police have recently received several reports of teenagers stealing jewellery from persons going about their business in sections of the division.

It is also being investigated that the teenagers may be linked to a number of recent jewellery store robberies.

"It is a developing trend and one we are very much concerned about as it involves kids stealing gold jewellery from persons. They snatch it, so to speak, and run off," Knight explained.

On at least two occasions, suspected teenage robbers have been held but the police did not catch them with the loot.

The police say this may have been because the teens normally carry whatever they have stolen to those they work for immediately.

Also, Knight said, if brought to court the teenagers are given small fines, a situation which does little good to prevent the trend.

THE STAR spoke with several jewellery store owners in Half-Way Tree, Cross Roads and Liguanea, St Andrew, who all admitted knowing of the trend and expressed concerns that their stores could be next.

beefed up security

One store owner in Liguanea went as far as to say he has beefed up security at his establishment in an effort to scare away potential robbers.

"Yes, this is something I have heard of and it is really sad to think our kids are being paid by criminals to carry out robberies. I for one have put more security personnel in my store," the store owner said.

The situation also recently forced Police Commissioner Owen Ellington to address jewellery store owners and he has promised to give keen attention to the issue.

"We will be going after the buyers, those who melt it down, those who compile it in bulk for shipping, because I think it's being shipped out of the country. We have to do some work around that as well, perhaps working with Immigration and Customs. That's a responsibility that we will take," the commisioner told jewellery store owners at a meeting at the Police Officers' Club, St Andrew, two weeks ago.

Ellington also urged store owners to equip their establishments with closed-circuit cameras to monitor their day-to-day operations. These cameras, he said, are a deterrent to robbers.

Last month, armed robbers struck at the Kraft Jewellery Store in Lane Plaza, St Andrew, and reportedly escaped with about $80 million in cash and jewellery.