It is still dark as police officers gather in the office of the break, enter, auto theft and robbery (BEAR) unit when the briefing begins at exactly 7:16 a.m. Thursday.

The assembled detectives are supposed to be preparing for early-morning searches at two Hamilton properties.

BEAR unit staff prepare to exercise a warrant on a house on Garrow Drive on the West Mountain. Cathie Coward/The Hamilton Spectator

They have arrest warrants for two 36-year-old men wanted for a recent break-and-enter theft at Ancaster Jewellers , where thieves smashed display cases in the middle of the night — the second time the family-run business had been targeted in a year. The same crew is suspected in other similar smash-and-grab thefts — including in Brantford, Guelph, Niagara, Peel and Quebec.

But

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