Surrey jewellery store burglary costs owner $300,000

An owner of a jewellery store in Surrey says he does not want to re-open his shop after a break and enter cost him $300,000.

Tamim Al Zein, owner of Damas Jewellery on 146 Street near 108 Avenue says it is very hard to open a jewellery business in Surrey after his store was burgled two months ago.

“It’s extremely scary, especially after hearing that two other jewellery stores were robbed before my store robbery happened,” he said in a written statement.

Al Zein tells CityNews that his store was broken into on Easter Sunday. The thieves entered the store at 2 a.m. and gained access to the building plaza through the roof, into another business’ bathroom, and eventually made a hole to get into his store.

“They got into my store and stayed there from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m.,” he said.

The owner says at 7 a.m. the back door of the store sent out a security alarm and rang after the thieves opened it to get out.

“We were notified but that’s when they took the safe and drove off,” Al Zein said.

He says the thieves were not able to open the safe while they were inside the store, so they had to take the entire safe with them.

He adds that when he looked for footage on his store camera, he wasn’t able to see anyone in the store.

“When I opened the camera there was no sign of anyone in the store,” he said. “They moved the camera to face the wall.”

Al Zein says the safe that was stolen had gold that was worth $300,000.

“I have to bear the 300,000, there is nothing else that I can do, unfortunately,” he said.

He tells CityNews that he was in between insurance companies as his insurance had just expired, and was unlucky enough to have the incident happen while he was uninsured.

Al Zein says the police have been investigating since the day the burglary happened, but they have not received any news so far.

“We have no suspect but it has to have been someone that is familiar with the building layout and print,” he said.

He says knowing that two other stores were broken into before his in Surrey, where one of the store owners was shot at multiple times, makes him fear re-opening his jewellery business.

“It’s hard opening a business knowing that the city is not safe anymore,” Al Zein said.