Spencer Matthews, the brother of Pippa Middleton’s husband, investment banker James Matthews, was in a luxury watch shop when the store was robbed.
PageSix says that Matthews, who previously starred in the British television show, Made In Chelsea , was able to hide in the lower level of The Hour House in London’s Marylebone neighborhood after the store was rushed by men armed with hammers, who came in breaking open the glass cases. Matthews says luckily he was able to hide in the store’s vault.
“I was in there picking up this vintage piece that I’ve been waiting for, for ages and these guys drive a scooter through the glass and start battering the shop with hammers, with huge hammers, wearing helmets.”
He explains he was in the back looking at the watch when the men busted in, and he was able to run downstairs with the employees to hide in the vault until the noise stopped. He says the store was battered and all of the watches were gone.
The London Metropolitan Police revealed later that three arrests had been made in the robbery shortly after the incident.
“Police were called at 10:32 hrs. on Tuesday, 28 May following reports that men armed with weapons drove to the premises on mopeds and smashed a window before stealing goods and fleeing.”
Spencer Matthews reveals he hid in vault of Marylebone jewellers while smash-and-grab moped gang raided store https://t.co/889rCCHZBl
— Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) May 28, 2019
The three men are being held on suspicion of armed robbery, and it’s likely that additional charges will be added, as a member of the public was injured during the commission of the crime.
Matthews was lucky because the piece he was coming to see, a 1991 Rolex Daytona Zenith, was still in the store.
“Among all the rubble and all the glass and stuff there’s one watch in the entire shop and it’s mine. Now, if that’s not luck, I don’t know what is.”
Matthews is the father of a baby with his wife, Vogue Williams, and says he would “think twice” before taking his son Theodore with him shopping because he says that “London is dangerous at the moment.”
People Magazine shared photos of the store after the robbery, and the floor was covered with glass and discarded sledgehammers in addition to an abandoned scooter.
The watch that Matthews bought was a $40,000 collector’s item. He later shared a photo of himself wearing the watch on social media that included the caption, “The only one they didn’t take!”
Scotland Yard is still investigating the robbery to see if anyone else was involved.