Watchmaster Robbery

Amazing.  Every time I read a story about a break-in of this sort, the first thing that comes to mind is...

Only people who would know the systems and the protocols well enough to overcome the security measures, right?

It seems incredibly unlikely that a random thief would know how to get through.  

Like Lifetime murder movies, the only time it isn't the husband is when it's the boyfriend.

Be weary of local Craigslist postings for discounted luxury watches…

There is one other possibility...  the "psycho mother-in-law"!

That's Hallmark.  Lifetime it has to be a dude.

Yes, the only odd thing is that it was a shared secured storage facility, operated by yet another company. The question would be where the insider came from, and if the watches were actually the primary target, or a lucky discovery. 

I gotta admit something...  maybe ~30 years ago, I used to watch Lifetime extensively, because they were the only channel that showed reruns of "30-something."  WTF was an 18 year-old doing watching a show about 30-something's?  I have no idea!

I don't understand how / why a legitimate operation didn't fully insure their assets???

Very suspicious. Especially when the perp wore an elaborate disguise. This pic might be a police sketch of the suspect.

Right?  I can't get my Counsel to budge on little stuff; if I went next door to his office and said "Hey, can we just not insure x?" he'd have a coronary.

Watchmaster also sells watches on behalf of customers, and then takes the commission.
So among all those stolen watches, there are many there that were not owned by Watchmaster but by private individuals.....I wonder how and if these are going to be compensated at all.
Watchmaster has announced its bankruptcy, so that does not look good for these people.

Exactly, or how a German news source wrote: 

Am Mittwoch teilte die Firma mit, dass sie einen Insolvenzantrag gestellt habe. Von den 1000 gestohlenen Uhren habe ein kleiner Teil Watchmaster gehört und ein Großteil Kunden, die ihre Uhren über die Firma verkaufen wollten. Zwar habe die Firma einen Versicherungsschutz, allerdings erhalte sie für die Uhren nur den Einkaufswert zurück – „was aber bei Weitem nicht das abdeckt, was bereits in Aufbereitung und Zertifizierung sowie Marketing investiert wurde“.

Which roughly means that the firm operating the facility has declared bankruptcy, and that only few of the watches were owned by Watchmaster, but rather Watchmaster's customers. The company had insurance coverage, but only for the wholesale value, which is not nearly enough to cover the damage.

Interestingly enough this source only listed 1000 stolen watches, not the 2200 that were mentioned in the source for my initial post.

This is so fascinating  and I have so many thoughts.  Among them, I can't imagine how any legitimate business does not have substantial umbrella policies covering themselves in these eventualities.  In certain businesses, it's actually a requirement though I know little about luxury resale.

Second, do people actually sell their extremely expensive watches on consignment?  It feels like the stupidest thing I've heard in my life because unless your consigner is gigantic and has big pockets to sue (like Sotheby's), the counterparty risk feels unacceptably high.

Like I might feel fine selling my watch to the pawnshop down the street, because cash leaves their account and enters mine before I give them a watch, or eBay, because the watch doesn't leave my possession until payment is rendered, but the idea of giving my watch to someone, not even with promise of payment but instead the promise to market and eventually pay, feels completely bonkers.

Well if that's a still shot from the security cam I can't imagine these guys are smart enough to get into the vault without help from someone in the know!! 

Yes, that is indeed an actual shot of one of the robbers, who sprayed the surveillance camera with paint immediately afterwards, and I'm sure this is a form of well-planned organized crime. 

That’s a LOT of watches!

I hope they apprehend those immoral jerks.

Wan dollah! Wan dollah for watch! I gib yuo 2200 dollah! Hows about dat? 😛

I very much hope so, too. This was pretty brazen, to be honest.

I had a watch ordered from them a couple of weeks ago. They kept delaying shipment. 
 

Got an email about the robbery two days ago and how my watch I ordered was not effected. 

Then this morning “we are insolvent and won’t be shipping or refunding you. You can contact our legal team for a claim”

brutal. 5 figure loss. 

Did you pay with credit card?  At least here in the States, you can dispute the charges, and the bank will typically simply cancel the charge.

I paid with BTC. The irony. I was probably an easy target not to refund.

I almost bought it on ebay buyer protection but they had it for like 25% cheaper on their site w/ their early black friday deals.. Oops.

OMG...  I feel for you, man!  That is absolutely brutal.  Those absolute f*ckers.

In light of your comment, I'm updating my priors.  Previously, I gave it a 50% probability that this was orchestrated by the company leadership.  Now, I'm at 90%.  The fact that they delayed shipment is a signal that they were looking to maximize the haul from their heist - if you know you're going to steal all the inventory and declare bankruptcy, you certainly aren't going to fulfill orders leading up to the commission of your fraud!

“Nothing to see here.” - SBF

”This is a genius marketing move by Watchmaster!” - Some moron on YouTube

At least he put gloves on and is covering his face while handling a pressurized container. Safety first!

I had to fight to get my $ back out of a micro about 10 years ago.  

Since then, it's always a CC (or CC via PayPal for individuals).

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/former-owner-boston-area-jewelry-chain-arrested-multi-million-dollar-fraud-scheme

Happened here a few years ago.  My friend was working there at the time; showed up one day and everything valuable and portable (gems, PP, AP, etc.) was gone from the store.

Absolutely blows my mind that the dude came back to the States!!!  What in the world was he thinking???

I mean, if he'd committed a violent crime, I'm guessing that the U.S. would have had him extradited.  But, I'm assuming that prosecutors figured that a ~$7M fraud was small potatoes and not worth the effort, if he lived in India unmolested for 10 years!  He could have continued on happily.  Why in the world did he fly back to LAX???

my thoughts exactly

edit - Maybe it was bc he knew they couldn't make the case stick.  Makes you wonder where all of that inventory got to...

https://indianewengland.com/charges-dismissed-raman-handa-former-owner-alpha-omega-jewelers/ 

I legitimately forgot those were separate channels