IT WAS an unlucky Friday the 13th for jeweller Irene de Souza when staff phoned to say burglars had made off with $80,000 worth of goods from her office.
But her bad fortune did not end there. When police arrived at her shop in Ferry Street, Jordan, she claimed one of them trod on a $100,000 antique bowl left behind by the thieves . . . and cracked it.
Mrs de Souza is now poised to take civil action against the officer after the police rejected compensation demands.
'I lost $80,000 of jewellery in the burglary, but I lost [a further] $100,000 because of the police,' she said of the incident at her Jordan office on Friday, May 13.
'A member of staff phoned me at about 11 am saying the office had been broken into by burglars and the safe was opened.
'My husband and I were very anxious because we'd put a silver bowl worth $300,000 and a Qing Dynasty bowl worth $100,000 in the safe. Both pieces were going for auction in the following month.' According to Mrs de Souza, one uniformed and three plain clothes officers led by an inspector were on the scene when she and her husband arrived.
'We were very happy when we realised the thief was something of a greenhorn. He just took away the jewellery inside the safe which was worth $80,000. But the silver bowl and the Qing Dynasty bowl were left on the floor wrapped in protective material.' Mrs de Souza said the officer in uniform asked her husband to check whether any damage had been done to the antiques.
