Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

An upper St. Andrew resident whose house was recently broken into was seen at the Flying Squad office, downtown Kingston on Thursday, sifting through a desk full of stolen items, hoping that her expensive wrist watch, which was stolen from her house, was there. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Thousands of dollars worth of items which include Movado wrist watches, expensive laptops computers, Blackberry cellular phones, gold chains and electrical appliances, believed to have been stolen from some upscale St. Andrew homes, are now at the Flying Squad office, downtown Kingston, waiting to be claimed by their rightful owners.

"We are getting very frustrated, because despite our appeal, the people seem reluctant in coming forward to identify their property," Deputy Superintendent of Police Cornwall 'Bigga' Ford told The Gleaner Thursday.

Minister's phone

At least one of the Blackberry cellular phones belong to a high-profile Government minister, whose house was broken into recently. DSP Ford said the items were found in the possession of a man who is now in custody.

The senior officer believes that the items were stolen from homes in Beverley Hills, Norbrook, Jacks Hill and Meadowbrook.

One of two women who visited the Flying Squad office on Thursday to see if any of the items belonged to her told a story of how her helper was conned a few weeks ago.

"A female came to my house and convinced the helper that she was my niece from New York. I was not at home, so the helper let her in. The woman then told the helper that she was tired and was going upstairs to take a nap. The next thing is, she changed into a suit of clothes and later left the house with a bag of expensive items without the helper knowing that she was gone," the woman said.

DSP Ford said he has received reports of a number of these incidents, but the people are slow in coming forward to look at the stolen items seized by his team of detectives.

"If people are afraid to come in, they can call me at the Flying Squad (922-2373),) said DSP Ford.