UNDIE ARREST
Dramatic moment have-a-go heroes tackle gang of armed raiders wearing boxer shorts on their heads as masks in £500k Rolex raid
Brave passer-by receives stab wound as gang detained until cops arrive
THIS is the dramatic moment a group of have-a-go heroes tackle a gang of armed raiders who have just robbed a jewellers.
The brave passers-by pin three robbers to the ground as they tried to flee with £500,000 of Rolex watches.
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The gang of four, including one who was using a pair of boxer shorts as a balaclava, stabbed one of the members of the public in the shoulder during a struggle.
The men, a trio aged in their mid-20s, and a teenager, roared up to the jewellers near Windsor Castle on mopeds with helmets covering their faces.
Three of them attacked the shop window with two sledgehammers and an axe, using such ferocity that staff members said the building shook, while another waved a knife at passersby, warning them to stay away.
Have-a-go hero shoppers stepped in and helped to pin Laurence McLaughlin, then aged 25, Perry Eustace, then aged 24 and Reece Corr, then aged 19, to the ground until police arrived on September 8, 2016.
The calamitous Keystone-Cops style raid was described to a judge who jailed one of the gang for nine years, two others for eight years and one, who went on the run after escaping the shoppers, to seven-and-a-half years in jail.
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Alerted by the sound of revving in a pedestrianised shopping precinct, a crowd quickly gathered outside Robert Gatward Jewellers in King Edward Court, Windsor, Berks., which houses a Rolex showroom.
The judge, sitting at Reading Crown Court, heard that shop manager Gary Reeves ran out with a plank of wood to confront them, accompanied by shop assistant Nichola Elliott who grabbed a wheel of a moped as it sped off, knocking the bike to the floor.
Prosecutor Lisa Goddard said: "It was around 10am that staff at Roger Gatward heard loud bangs at the side area of the store. The manager, who was upstairs, said it was so loud that the whole building was shaking.
"He realised thieves were trying to break into the store and and grabbed a bit of wood to defend himself and went out to see what was going on. A member of staff saw that it was the Rolex window being attacked."
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Eustace waved a knife at him and warned: "I'll stick you".
Ms Goddard said that when confronted, the gang abandoned the plan to break the shop windows and tried to escape.
Shoppers and people milling about the precinct leapt into action, tripping the men up as they tried to flee from the scene on foot.
In the struggle, have-a-go-hero Mark Morley pounced on Eustace and wrestled him to the ground and was knifed in the shoulder requiring hospital treatment for a one-and-a-half centimetre wound.
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Chuma Gumede of Slough, Berks, also threatened a passer-by who tried to intervene, as members of the public rushed at the two mopeds, knocking one over. When the thieves tried to escape on another the shopper snatched the keys from the ignition and restrained the men until police arrived.
With strings of previous convictions between them, the young men took a stolen moped with them to aid their getaway, the court was told.
The fourth man, Gumede, aged 26 years, escaped from the scene but was caught months later after forensic evidence linked him to crime.
As details of Corr's attempt to disguise his identity with a pair of boxer shorts around his neck were read out, there were giggles from the dock.
A statement written by store manager Mr Reeves said the raid had cost the shop close to £70,000. Of the 48 Rolexes on display, more than half of which were damaged, were worth a total of £528,500.
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All four were sent to HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire after admitting attempted robbery from the dock at Reading Crown Court today.
Eustace, aged 26 years, also admitted an unlawful wounding offence and possession of a bladed article.
McLoughlin, aged 26 years, and Corr entered guilty pleas in the first instance were given eight year sentences for attempted robbery, with Corr to spend his in a young offender's institute.
Eustace was given a nine-year sentence including eight years for armed robbery and one year for possession of an offensive weapon to run consecutively, and another for unlawful wounding to run concurrently.
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