IT WILL go down in police annals as one of the most professional ever burglaries in Cyprus. But quite how the robbers pulled it off is as yet a tantalising mystery.
This, of course, is no consolation to the victims, Caroline and Barrie Carter, who lost their life savings and retirement fund – 200,000 euros worth of gold coins – when they went for a rare night out earlier this month.
Their treasure was uninsured but secure, they believed. The bullion was in a heavy, hidden safe, guarded by four large dogs inside their locked bedroom. Their daughter, Michelle, 26, was at home – and an ex-Scotland Yard police detective lives next door.
Now, eight days after their initial trauma, the Carters are trying to re-build their lives and, admirably, even counting their blessings.
“I’m just delighted Michelle wasn’t harmed,” Caroline told The Sunday Mail, which first reported on the robbery earlier this week along with the Carters’ offer of a 25,000 euro reward for the coins’ return.
The couple’s “wonderful friends” in Peyia are rallying around: they have drummed up 700 euros of ‘survival money’ for the Carters.
“It makes you feel there are more good people out there than bad people,” Caroline, 53, said. The couple’s “excellent” landlord has also let them off this month’s rent.
Even so, the family’s loss is incalculable unless the police – who “have been absolutely fantastic” – recover the coins. The Carters say they may have to pull their son, Michael, 15, out of his public school in Surrey where he excelled academically and on the rugby field.
“We haven’t told him yet that he mightn’t be going back next year,”
Caroline said. “We will sell what bits of jewellery and any other valuables we have in the hope of paying his school fees for next term.”
When the Carters sold their house in Britain to retire in the sea caves area of Peyia four years ago they invested the proceeds in gold which was returning much higher yields than bank deposit accounts.
They kept their coin collection at home for easy access, occasionally cashing in some to pay Michael’s school fees or to pay their rent.
Insurance cover for the bullion would have been prohibitive because it was not stored in a bank vault. But the Carters were confident that their security measures were more than sufficient.
They were proved terribly wrong on the evening of Friday, 10 June. The robbers struck at sometime between 9.15 and 9.45 pm. Michelle had just popped out to pick up a takeaway. It is likely the thieves had been watching the house to ensure no-one was at home.
They moved swiftly, breaking the front door locks with professional skill before moving upstairs to ransack the bedrooms, having obviously staked out the house earlier.
“I believe they were looking for a safe, presuming most houses in this area have them,” Caroline said.
After breaking into the master bedroom the robbers came face-to-face with four guard dogs. But the burglars were well prepared.
“They must have sprayed the dogs with something to disorientate and calm them down because they have been a bit wobbly for the last few days,” Caroline said.
The weighty safe – which could only be hoisted by two strong men – was hidden in a cupboard.
While they were at work, Michelle came home, apparently and without knowing it, surprising the robbers upstairs with her early return.
They hurled the safe over the bedroom balcony at the rear of the house before taking the plunge themselves. One left a chunk of a training shoe embedded in a piece of stone.
Police found the safe a few days later, dumped between the Paphos villages of Peyia and Kathikas. The coins were gone, but the paperwork about their value and provenance – from all over the world – was left inside.
Did the robbers know of the Carters’ stash of gold before their home invasion? Probably not, although it is likely they assumed there was a lot of cash in the house because Caroline, 53, a biologist, runs a successful natural therapy business in Peyia. Barrie, her husband, is a retired engineer who also worked as a property dealer in Britain.
The thieves would have done their homework, but their success appears to have been more opportunistic than a result of inside knowledge: the Carters’ precious metal hoard was a closely guarded secret. Lowlife thieves are unlikely to have heard about it on the grapevine.
Bolstering this theory is that the home of their ex-Scotland Yard neighbour was robbed on the same night, apparently by the same gang.
His locks were picked, his house trashed and 1,000 euros in cash stolen, Caroline said.
Ironically, the mostly British-populated area of Peyia is the first community in Cyprus to have piloted a neighbourhood watch programme, to which the Carters signed up to this month.
Those who robbed the Carters will find it very difficult to shift the looted gold coins.
“We bought them from Knightsbridge Coins in London. When we need cash we just sent some over and the money was deposited in our account,”
Caroline said.
“They are top quality gold and if you try and sell them everyone will be alerted,” she added. “There are a lot of old coins-some with historical value.”
Along with the gold coins, Caroline kept a number of silver bars in the safe. She uses these in her healing work.
“We make something called collodial silver- it’s Nature’s own antibiotic. It’s amazing-I’ve never taken antibiotics.”
Caroline purchased the silver from the London Bullion Market Association to ensure it was of the highest quality.
Smart as they may think they are, those responsible for the Carter heist may find they have bitten off more than they can chew. Gold is far harder to launder than bank notes.
Anyone with information is kindly requested to contact Caroline Carter
on: 99-042639 or [email protected]
