ROBERT Hain’s hands shake when he recalls the day he came face-to-face with a trigger-happy robber.

His mug of coffee sits untouched as he searches for the words that will adequately describe what happened inside his jewellery store in the small Central Coast town of Erina.

It is October 25, 2001, the lunchtime rush has been through the doors of Robert’s Jewellers.

Mr Hain’s son, just 15, is learning the craft as an apprentice. Two other workers are in the shop going about their day.

Mr Hain is bent over plying his trade. It is 2.40pm. Two balaclava-clad men storm into the shop, armed with guns, screaming for money. They point what Robert believes to be sawn-off shotguns at each of them, including his young son.

“Someone had just left the shop and as they left, two guys burst in with balaclavas on and guns and some other metal thing, which was making a lot of noise and using it to break things.

“One of them jumped over the counter and the other one came around behind the showcase. It was like he knew where he was going. He pointed the gun straight at me, turned it around to the two guys that were sitting at the bench and my son was in the background where the other guy was near the safe.

“The guy with a gun, I could tell he just wanted to shoot someone. He had an itchy finger. He was so agitated, he was busting to use this gun.

“They were yelling, ‘where’s the cash, where’s the cash’. They went around, opened a safe and took some jewellery out of there. There was another safe, where the finished work was. They removed a handful of finished jobs, a lot of custom jobs.

“We kept yelling, ‘the cash was in the register’ … there was a lot of up-market jewellery there.”

Loaded up with what they wanted, the robbers made a run for it.

“A blue Commodore came around the corner and picked them up. There was a coffee shop opposite the store. There was two off-duty police officers, they saw them running from the shop, so they came running over. That’s when they fired at them.

“There was a concrete wall there and bullets went into it, could have killed anyone in that coffee shop. It was extreme luck that no-one got shot.

“The police closed off all of Erina, they had roadblocks everywhere. It was pointless though, they were gone.”

But for Mr Hain, fear turned to guilt. He had worked long and hard on a number of custom jewellery pieces, they were art.

“I remember there was two young people getting married at the time and they had their rings stolen in the robbery. We didn’t let them down, we worked hard and remade the rings and they had them by the Saturday. We got stuck in and did it all in one day. We couldn’t let them down, they were getting married.”

The thieves stole more than jewellery. They stole the Hains’ ability to make money in the upcoming busy Christmas period.

“They stole all of our Christmas stock, the insurance company didn’t pay us for about five months, well after Christmas. We couldn’t replace stock, which was a big deal back then. We lost a lot more than just the money and stock that was stolen. Christmas was big in those days, a lot of people coming in and buying jewellery, but we didn’t have the stock because it had been stolen.”

Another hit came for Mr Hain when on Christmas Day his home was ransacked.

“On Christmas Day somebody must have learnt where I lived, they’d stolen a four-wheel-drive and drove straight through my wrought-iron gates. They smashed in the front door and stole just about everything they could touch. Christmas presents, my ex wife’s jewellery, everything.

“We were out for Christmas lunch, it was very traumatic. This was shortly after the robbery.”

An investigation was launched into both incidents, but goes cold. Robert packs up his life, including the jewellery safes and display cabinets, and moves to the Gold Coast.

“Nothing comes of it, didn’t hear much from them, they didn’t ask anymore questions than what they did on that day.

“It was probably about 12 months after the robbery and once everything was settled down.

“I packed up those three massive safes and the showcases, I don’t know why, we only sold one of those showcases two years ago.”

GOLD COAST GEMS

For more than 15 years Mr Hain has been a mainstay at The Oasis shopping centre in the heart of Broadbeach. It’s been more than 40 years of plying his craft, creating handmade masterpieces. He’s a master jeweller and a platinum member of the Australian Jewellers Association, a true legend of his industry.

“I open the shop, Darje by Roberts Jewellery, and it was doing pretty well, then I opened one in Surfers, that was doing OK, but this one here was doing really well. I ended up closing the one in Surfers, driving backwards and forwards all the time, it wasn’t what I came here for.

“I’ve continued to do my manufacturing and I specialise in diamond fusion. I still make amazing jewellery, it’s a miracle, I don’t know how I do it.”

He sits there and toils away, making things from scratch. He’s part of a dwindling breed, believing handmade, will always trump anything produced by a machine.

“Mostly the jewellers just don’t exist anymore, people will make things on machines.

“I make it for customers, I won’t go through wholesalers and retailers.

“If you think back to when I had my shop 20 years ago on the Central Coast, I had a big shop, everyone knew me and would shop there.

“People would come from far and wide, they came from everywhere, London, America everywhere.

“Over those 20 years, we’ve had to work out how to survive, how to make this work.”

The love of the industry, despite the challenges, is still there.

“I really do enjoy what I do. I was told when I was younger ‘if you’re good at something, stick to it, don’t change’.

“I may have changed shops a few times, but I’m still going and I think people appreciate me and that makes me feel good.”

DULLED BUT STILL SHINING

THIS year, Mr Hain was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour. He says it’s in an “awkward spot” requiring an operation to remove it.

“Until this brain tumour came a long, I would work seven days a week. I wanted to be there. It’s a stress relief for me to make something, to make something nice that people love.

“I’ll have another scan in October and the doctor wants to do it straight away. When she told me it was a shock. It was disbelief, I had to absorb what I was told.

“I was told if I don’t have the tumour removed that I’d be dead in two years. That was five months ago. I couldn’t even absorb that. I was wondering if I could finish off that ladies ring before I died.

“I was telling people and I felt like I was lying to people, it hadn’t sunk in. I’m scared also. I can’t deny that.

“There’s an operation at the end of the year to remove the tumour, it’s in a real bad spot. They’ll have to cut my whole skull open to get into it. Then I’ll have radiation after that. If I didn’t do it and if I retired, I’d go crazy. It’s changed my outlook a little bit, but I’ll continue on.”

There has been some good news this year though: his robbery case, gone cold, had heated up.

After nearly two decades on the run police arrested a 47-year-old man in Camperdown last month, charging him with two counts of robbery while armed with dangerous weapon and shoot at person with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.

He was denied bail and remains in police custody. Police sources told the Bulletin the investigation into the jewellery heist is still ongoing, with further arrests expected.

“It’s good you know, a bit of piece of mind, but it’s something I’ll soon not forget.”