In a daring broad daylight robbery, petrified staff at a Suva jewelry shop watched as three men smashed glass showcases, selected expensive gold jewelry, and escaped in a getaway car, leaving behind two injured workers. This dramatic incident was reported by The Fiji Times on February 21, 1999.
The robbery occurred at Anita Jewellers on Cumming Street, bustling with shoppers at 10:30 AM. Only two men attempted to intervene during the heist. One was punched in the chest, while the other was threatened by a fourth accomplice waving a broken beer bottle.
The stolen jewelry, valued over $50,000, included heavy bangles, pendants, earrings, and mangal sutra (traditional necklaces worn by married Indian women). Fortunately, the items were insured.
Sales assistant Nalini Singh recounted the frightening experience. She said there were about eight customers in the shop when three masked men, armed with screwdrivers, entered. “They just walked in like any other customer. I looked up when I heard one of them say, ‘Don’t move’,” Singh said.
“One of them went for the security guard. Another smashed the glass showcases and took out one tray of bangles and three or four trays of earrings and pendants. The third jumped over the counter, smashed the glass against the wall, and grabbed the mangal sutra.”
Customers ran to the back office, and the four sales assistants huddled behind a counter. Singh, who remained standing, said a piece of glass fell from the wall onto employee Shamila Devi’s back. Devi was taken to the hospital but was not in serious condition.
The robbery was over in less than a minute. Outside, neighboring shopkeepers who saw the masked men enter the shop began calling for the police, and some drivers honked their horns, attracting a large crowd. Witnesses reported the getaway car driver began throwing beer bottles at the crowd.
A spectator named Maciu, who tried to intervene, said the driver brandished a beer bottle and a broken bottle, challenging him to come closer. The three robbers quickly exited the shop and fled in their car towards Waimanu Road. When Maciu returned to retrieve his shopping, it was gone.
Police spokesman Sergeant Ambhika Sharma reported that the getaway car, a grey station wagon with the registration number E5484, was parked strategically to block other vehicles. Sharma noted there had been a spike in criminal activity since February 19, 1999.
Earlier that morning, a vehicle with a stolen registration number DA31 was seen on Shalimar Street with four masked men inside, but it was abandoned at Brown Street in Toorak after being disturbed. On the morning of February 19 at 4:30 AM, four men robbed the BP Marine gas station by forcing the door open with crowbars, threatening the cashier with an iron rod, and stealing $890 and other items worth $1,000. The car used had the registration number CG160, which was also stolen.
Later that day at 10:30 AM, two men threatened a pay clerk with a kitchen knife outside his office at South Seas Engineering in Walu Bay, escaping with $8,100. The same car was used, but with a different registration number, E5262. The car was later found abandoned.
Sergeant Sharma mentioned that multiple stolen license plates were in circulation and that the police were investigating any links between the various robberies and the one at Anita Jewellers.
Anita Jewellers’ Suva manager Dilip Jogia recalled noticing suspicious characters in the shop earlier in the week. He said the robbers seemed to know exactly what to take and announced plans to increase security and called for more police patrols along Cumming Street.
Jogia reported calling the emergency number 000 twice to report the crime, but his call was placed in a queue. He estimated a loss of about $8,000 in business due to the robbery and expressed concerns about rising insurance premiums.
In response to the robberies, police mounted checkpoints at strategic points around the greater Suva area.