A group of thieves smashed through a La Verne jewelry store, stealing about $300,000 dollars of jewelry. Christian Cazares reports for the NBC4 News on July 3, 2023.
A violent robbery in the middle of the day that police described as like a movie scene was captured on surveillance video at a jewelry store in the San Gabriel Valley community of La Verne.
It's how the thieves committed the crime at Rodeo Jewelry that has police on alert.
Surveillance video captured the moment at about noon Saturday when a car rammed through the front entrance.
Moments later, four people are seen swarming the business and grabbing merchandise, some using hammers to smash open jewelry cases. One robber is seen throwing a chair at someone just out of a view of the camera.
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The crime has put people who work at the La Verne shopping center off Foothill Boulevard on their guard.
“I now park in the back at night and I leave with pepper spray in my hand and my keys ready because you never know,” Kristin Glass, an employee at the shopping center, said.
La Verne police said the owner, his wife and son were inside the store and witnessed all the robbers flee in a black sedan with bags of jewelry. The business owner has their entrance boarded up and is recovering from what happened.
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“One of the suspects acted as a guard for the other three and stood between the suspects stealing and where the owner was. He picked up a chair and hit him over the head,” Lt. Cory Leeper of the La Verne Police Department said.
Detectives hope the video will help identify the four thieves who had their faces covered.
The business owner is recovering from the physical attack that local residents said has them looking over their shoulders in fear.
“To see that this happened in my town and know someone drove into the store it's scary. It's very scary because I live one thousand feet behind this building,” John Payne, a resident, said.
“You could clearly see they were very upset. Very upset,” Glass said.
Police said the car used to smash into the business was stolen, and thieves ran off with about $300,000 of jewelry.
Police are asking anyone with information to come forward.
