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Police arrested a man in connection with a September diamond theft in Auckland, but the whereabouts of the stolen jewelry remains a mystery.
Dramatic security footage captured the moment Polished Diamonds owner and operator Nick Nielson confronted a thief at his Ponsonby store and chased him down with a baseball bat.
Nielson landed “a couple of good hits” on the getaway car, smashing two windows, before the vehicle drove off down the busy Auckland highway.
Chris McKeen / Stuff
Nick Nielson owns and operates Polished Diamonds in Ponsonby.
The thief ran away with tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry.
On Wednesday, police confirmed that they had arrested a 44-year-old man in connection with the incident, but the stolen items had not been recovered.
He was due to appear in Auckland District Court in December.
“I knew basically after 24 hours of the robbery that [the jewellery] he’s probably gone a long time ago, ”Nielson said.
Chris McKeen / Stuff
Nielson and his “trusty bat” managed to break some windows of the thief’s getaway car before it took off. The car, he would learn later, was also stolen.
“I know the joke or, you know, people say, ‘Boohoo, they robbed a diamond shop in Ponsonby,’ but I’m a small business owner just like anyone else.
“I don’t have a great team behind me, it’s just me. I’m a single parent trying to get the most out of things and these kinds of incidents really hurt small businesses. “
Chris McKeen / Stuff
The thief broke through the front door, smashed a display case, and filled her bag with jewelry.
Nielson said he was grateful for the community support he had received since the robbery seven weeks ago.
Her company makes its jewelry off-site, and the Ponsonby store was more of a prototype showroom.
Security in the showroom had since been tightened, and the “confidence bat” was still in place as well.
