A watch dealer has been found dead the day after robbers put him in a chokehold and stole expensive watches from him at a jewellers in southwest London, police have said.
Two unarmed men stole a number of high-value watches from the shop in Kew Road, Richmond, on Saturday, say the Metropolitan Police.
CCTV footage posted online shows a shop worker being put in a chokehold during the raid.
In the video, two men are seen talking to a watch salesman at a table in a jewellers.
One of the men, who has multiple tattoos and is wearing a black and white T-shirt with sunglasses on his head, is seen grabbing the dealer and holding him around his neck for more than a minute.
His accomplice, wearing a grey hoodie and ripped blue jeans, grabs items from cabinets and stuffs them into a bag on the other man’s back.
Police said the victim of the robbery, named widely online as Oliver White, who worked at 247 Kettles, was found dead in Shepperton in Surrey, on Sunday.
The death is not being treated as suspicious.
The firm’s Instagram page advertised watches by Rolex, Patek Phillipe and Cartier among others, with at least one listed at more than £100,000.
The woman named widely online as his girlfriend of six years, Alana Dredge, posted on her public Instagram page a picture of the couple at a rooftop swimming pool – the last photo taken of them together, she said.
She wrote: “My darling boy I can’t believe you’re gone. This was only two weeks ago and now I’ll never see you again.
“The last thing you said to me was I love you. I will cherish you forever, being with you was the best six years of my life.
“I hope you are reading this from up there, I will continue to make you proud.”
The Metropolitan Police said: “We are aware of the death of a man in Surrey on Sunday, 26 May. The man who died was the victim of a robbery at a jewellers in Richmond on Saturday 25 May.”
The force asked the public not to share the “moving CCTV footage” on social media.
Surrey Police said officers were called to a location in Shepperton shortly after 8.15pm on Sunday following a report of a concern for safety.
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The force said: “A man in his 20s was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin are aware and are being supported.”
On Saturday, the Metropolitan Police released images of two men they wish to locate following the robbery, who appeared to be the men in the video, and said the staff member had not been seriously injured.
Police said on Tuesday that no arrests had been made.
Source Agencies
