Police Make Arrest in Jewelry Heist

Police in London say one man has been arrested for a daring heist that netted $65 million worth of jewelry.

Scotland Yard says the suspect is not one of the two well-dressed men shown widely in CCTV footage released by authorities Tuesday. Police say those two men are still at large and that there are at least four suspects.

Two well-dressed thieves walked into a London Bond Street jewelry store last week and, after brandishing handguns at shop workers, made off with $65 million worth of gems in one of Britain's biggest jewelry heists, police said Tuesday.

Security camera footage released by Scotland Yard shows two men in crisp suits entering Graff Diamonds' flagship store on Thursday afternoon.

The men stole 43 pieces of jewelry including rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches worth a total of 40 million pounds, or $65 million.

CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports that the pair were then caught on video by someone across the road with a cell phone. The video shows them emerge from the store with one woman held at gun point, fire one warning shot into the ground, and then make their well-planned escape in a blue BMW.

That car was the first of at least three vehicles waiting at various points in central London to help the thieves disappear.

"They are clearly visible on the CCTV, so we're hoping that somebody out there knows who these men are," said Detective Chief Inspector Pam Mace of London's Metropolitan Police. "We would love to hear from anybody who would like to tell us the identity of those men, or anybody whose seen any of the aftermath."

Police say it's highly likely the suspects have already fled the United Kingdom, reports MacVicar.

It was among the biggest heists in British history - far outstripping the 1963 Great Train Robbery in which 2 million pounds were lost.

Last week's theft, however, was topped by the 2006 robbery of 53 million pounds in cash from a security company depot in southern England, and was rivaled by the 1987 theft of an estimated 40 million pounds from the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Center in London.

Police declined to rank Thursday's robbery, saying only that it was one of the country's biggest. Items stolen included a pair of white diamond double hoop earrings, a flowing flower necklace with yellow diamond petals, a platinum white Marquise diamond ring and a Chronograff watch, police said.

Graff's store, a classical stucco and stone town house in London's jewelry district, has been targeted by thieves in the past.

The same store lost jewelry worth 23 million pounds in 2003 when it was robbed by jewel thief Nebojsa Denic, a Kosovan Serb and a member of the notorious gang of Balkan robbers known as "the Pink Panthers." Denic was caught and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In 2007 another smartly dressed pair was chauffeured to the store's Sloane Street branch in a Bentley Continental Flying Spur. They whipped out handguns and made off with 10 million pounds worth of gems.

Graff Diamonds declined to give details beyond the police statement.