JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (WABC) — New video captures a brazen smash-and-grab robbery at a jewelry store in Jersey City.
Four people were seen on video barging through the glass in a matter of seconds and getting away with more than a million dollars in merchandise.
It all happened so quickly, 10 seconds of smashing the window and glass door, and then once it gives way, the four robbers enter and start smashing the cases.
“They came with a laundry bag. They just took it and put it in, like, really like three minutes. Everything. They just put it in like nothing,” Owner of Gustavo Oro Jewelry Shop, Gustavo Sanchez said.
Sanchez is shattered by what happened to his jewelry shop in Jersey City.
“I just sat crying and, you know, thinking of, like, how things like this can happen,” he said.
It was 6:48 in the evening on Thursday night and the shop closed at 8 p.m.
Three employees were inside and fled safely through a back door.
The inventory was practically wiped out.
“Our entire inventory and I would say around $1.2 Million, $1.1M. Everything. They took everything,” Sanchez said.
Last year, he added the extra level of security glass over the counter, but the cases were no match for the mallets.
He has another store location in Paterson and he’s hoping to figure out a way to better protect it and his employees.
Sanchez said he believes it’s a sign of tough economic times.
“People are desperate right now. And something that we have to know. We have to be alert because this happening all the time, every day,” Sanchez said.
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