Ex-Arsenal defender reunited with Rolex
�Former Arsenal star Lauren was reunited with a Rolex watch stolen six years ago with the help of his former employers this week – as police officers turned to the web to help other victims of theft.
The former right-back, a key member of the “Invincibles” side that went through the 2003-2004 season unbeaten, jetted into the capital to pick up his Rolex Daytona – thought worth about �6,000 – on Monday.
It was recovered in a police raid after being stolen in a burlary at his home in 2005, during the Cameroonian’s six-year stint with the Gunners. The club helped track down the retired footballer, real name Laureano Bisan-Etame Mayer.
Online
The watch was seized in raids in Essex and east London which turned up high-value and collectable goods worth more than �500,000 in all, including jewellery, antiques and silverware, along with several air rifles and a pump action rifle.
Officers say many of the items were stolen in armed robberies on jewellers, household burglaries and thefts between 1994 and 2010 across south-east England.
They have set up an online gallery on the website Flickr with more than 200 photos of the stolen goods, so people can try to identify anything that might belong to them. The gallery is Tower Hamlets – Operation Avitus.
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A 73-year-old man has been arrested for handling stolen goods and has been bailed to return to an east London police station in December pending further inquiries.
