200kg safe robbed from Dubai's Al Awir market

Two shops in Al Awir Fruits and Vegetable Market was broken into on Friday night and a safe comprising about Dh200,000 in cash, passports, signed cheque leaves and other valuable documents is allegedly missing.

Robbers managed to get inside shop numbers 130 and 131 through the roof. "They did not try to open and take cash and valuables from the safe. Instead they took away the safe itself. We have many signed cheques some due for collection," said sources from the company.

The safe weighs about 200 kilograms and had at least three days collection in cash, said another source. Al Awir Police is investigating the case, according to sources at Afsar Khams, a wholesale fruit dealer.

It is rumoured that cash worth Dh200,000 has been lost from Afsar Khamis, and more than Dh2,000 lost from UMC - branch of an Indian business group.

The robbery came to light early Saturday morning at about 4am. The shops were closed at 11pm the previous night.

“One person cannot carry the heavy steel safe. At least four people would have jointly carried the vault," said a trader.

T Shakeer, General Manager of UMC, confirmed that shop number 131 was robbed on Friday night and that a police investigation is on.

“Normally we close late, but this Friday we closed a little early. Only big traders deposit their cash with security companies who inturn transport their daily collections to banks. Small traders keep collections in their offices, until banks reopen after the weekend," said a trader.

Police collected fingerprints and are questioning employees at the shops.

Meanwhile, another trader said Awir market has no fixed timings. "Each shop functions at its own time. There should be uniform timings for everyone."
 

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