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Group of thieves rob Bay Area jewelry store, several arrested
About 20 people robbed a jewelry store in California’s Bay Area, using hammers to break into the front door.
Nearly 20 people left a California jewelry store in shambles after stealing as much as they could in a smash-and-grab robbery that lasted less than three minutes.
The group broke into the PNG Jewelers in Sunnyvale on June 12 at around 1:27 p.m., the city’s Department of Public Safety said in a news release. Sunnyvale is just south of San Francisco in what is known as the South Bay.
Surveillance video shows the suspects using hammers and other tools to budge the front door open. Masking their faces with hoods, the thieves fan out across the store to quickly destroy nearly every display case.
The suspects grab as much jewelry as they can before fleeing the scene, leaving the store with shards of glass scattered across the floor. Footage captured the reactions of two employees witnessing the damage after they walked into the store.
The total value of stolen jewelry is unknown. Nobody was harmed in the heist.
Officers arrested five suspects fleeing store
The thieves entered multiple vehicles and officers found two suspect vehicles fleeing, police said.
The suspects refused to comply with enforcement stops so police pursued the vehicles onto Highway 101 before losing track of both. Someone in one of the cars threw stolen jewelry out during the chase.
Officers later located a car on the highway that was used by five suspects who fled on foot and were soon arrested, including one of them who was tracked down by a police dog.
The five men arrested have been charged with several offenses including armed robbery, felony vehicle evasion, resisting arrest, burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime and vandalism, among others.
