Last update - 00:00 22/12/2007
Police bust mastermind burglar 'The Brain' breaking into Judaica store
By Ora Katz, Haaretz Correspondent
Police on Saturday afternoon arrested five people on suspicion of breaking into a Jerusalem office building housing a Judaica and jewelry store. The suspects include convicted criminal Yitzhak Drori, whose skills as a burglar have earned him the nickname "The Brain."
The alleged robbers were arrested upon exiting the building on Ben Yehuda Street. According to police, the suspects were found to be in possession of sophisticated burglary equipment, including hydraulic and electronic devices used to break through walls and neutralize alarm systems.
A police spokesperson said the group had managed to break into the building, which is largely abandoned during the weekend. However, they said that they had failed to break through a wall to enter their main target: the building's Judaica and jewelry store.
Police said they had received a tip informing them of the impending robbery attempt. Based on the information, a team of detectives kept the men under close surveillance and followed them to the Jerusalem building where they lay in wait outside.
"The five men had taken into consideration that the building was empty on Saturdays," a police official said. "They broke in through the main door. Then they broke into another room that shares a wall with the Judaica and jewelry store. Then they tried to make their way through that wall to the store using sophisticated equipment. The idea was to neutralize the alarm system and break through the wall. The wall was much thicker than they had imagined. They worked on it for three hours, and when they saw they weren't going to be able to break through, that the wall was 'stubborn' and they were not going to succeed, they had to leave with the equipment. This is when detectives caught them red-handed, with bags full of equipment in hand. That's when the arrests were made."
After the suspects were held, detectives entered the empty building and examined the large hole the robbers created in the wall shared with the jewelry store.
"We saw that their bags were empty of jewelry and that they didn't make it inside; that they left with the same equipment they came with. They couldn't carry out their plan because it was a thick Jerusalem[-stone] wall," the police official said.
The police sting was carried out by several teams of officers from the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv districts. Drori lives in Beit Hashomani, and the remaining four arrested suspects are residents of Holon, Rishon Letzion and Jerusalem. All have prior records related to burglary attempts. The suspects are expected to be brought Sunday before a Magistrate's Court to extend their remands.
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