The jewellery heist nearby

There was a dramatic sight on my way to work this morning: the shop window of a jeweller was lying on the pavement, broken down, a police line wrapped around the area, with a single police car and a police officer guarding it. This was three minutes away from home, if that. On the street parallel to ours. In a quiet little English town where nothing happens. My first thought was: "so they still do jewellery heists, like in the old movies and crime novels?" Okay, so it was not nearly as Hollywoodian, but there was something surreal about it. Like it belonged to another time or something. I don't know why I think that. I guess now I see burglary as the theft of TVs, computers, etc. Something akin to looting, in other words. Stealing fancy jewels belongs to another time, with posh thieves wearing nice suits, Venetian masks and white gloves. There was an element of looting in this heist: the burglars rammed a car in the window in the early hours of the morning before stealing it. I could have heard it. I guess I was sound asleep.

My second thought about the burglary was: "this could be the starting point of a great crime fiction story". Hot ice, a very modern setting, a quiet English town (this could of course be changed into any quiet town, or suburbs), MOD that is brutal, very contemporary and which contrasts with the object of the burglary. I say this and I know it must have been horrible for the owners and the staff. When your working place gets vandalized as well as burglarized, it must be a traumatic experience. Even for the locals. But I can't help thinking that this could be the beginning of a great story. I guess there is a cathartic element to turning such bit of news into fiction. Maybe not before the criminals are caught though.