A night-time burglary at 22a Lion Street netted thieves £30,000 worth of luxury goods, mainly handbags with fashion design labels including Chanel, Gucci, Hermes and Christian Dior.
The break-in occurred at 12:45am on Sunday morning, June 7 as recorded on CCTV in the shop. The owner Emma Pinfold said that a padlocked gate onto the street had been opened with bolt-cutters and the shop door forced open with a jemmy or crowbar and kicked in. The noise of banging awakened a neighbouring shop-owner who rang the police, but in the time it took for them to arrive from Hastings, the burglars had filled a duvet sack with goods and fled. On their way, they dropped a shoe and a trainer in the high street.
At the scene that morning, a forensic expert on the civilian police staff from Eastbourne was searching for evidence. He applied a black gel-covered sheet to the door surfaces, hoping to detect fingerprints, footmarks or glove marks, anything with a textured finish. The CCTV cameras showed two persons involved, but heavily masked, hooded and gloved, making identification difficult. They clearly knew exactly which goods to go for.
Emma Pinfold owns two other shops under the trading name Bond Street to your Street, one in Tenterden and the other in Cranbrook. She shares the Rye one with Angela Bunyan, who runs Room Seven Interiors, an interior furnishings business. Asked how soon those expensive fashion accessories will be restocked and for sale, Emma replied that that depends on how quickly insurers will settle the claim.
Emma Pinfold is not new to burglaries. Her Tenterden high street shop was broken into in February last year, 2020. Items stolen then included bags by Prada and Chanel with other items, totalling £20,000. As she told me, it is no wonder that insurers insist on high tech surveillance equipment. Police no doubt hope that its evidence in this case could lead to the recovery of the stolen goods.
