#smash-and-grab

#smash-and-grab

Viral security camera and cellphone videos taken in the last two years show groups of masked robbers who appear to be young males wearing dark clothing, entering jewelry stores in malls and streetfront shops. They are brazenly using hammers to smash glass, filling bags with jewelry and running off to getaway vehicles before police arrive.

Members of a sophisticated burglary crew suspected of executing a series of smash-and-grab retail burglaries that netted more than $2.6 million in stolen goods this year have been arrested, the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday. Three adults and three minors were arrested in connection with the burglaries at high-end eyewear and sunglass shops throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties, the statement said.

Unfortunately, this is the third time we've been broken into within a year," Nick DeRose said.

So since March, we've had 30 violent robberies in California targeting jewelry stores. This is something I haven't seen in my 30-plus years of investigating jewelry crime with the NYPD, and 14 years with the Jewelers Security Alliance. I've never seen this level of violence," said Scott Guginsky who is the VP of the Jewelers Security Alliance. The Alliance works to help keep employees and customers safe at jewelry stores across the country.

I feel that if they didn't have that weapon to scare them off it would've been worse,