Roof-Raiders Steal $2m in Jewelry Heist
May 30, 25
(IDEX Online) - Thieves stole more than $2m in merchandise and cash after breaking into a jewelry store safe from an adjacent candy store.
They never actually entered the store - instead they spent around three hours cutting their way through a dividing wall from Dr. Conkey's Candy & Coffee, into 5 Star Jewelry & Watch Repair, at a strip mall in Simi Valley, California, USA.
They then cut a hole in the eight-inch thick side wall of the 5,000-pound safe, and emptied it.
They escaped with gold bullion, customer jewelry, cash, luxury watches (such as Rolex, TAG Heuer, Omega), irreplaceable family heirlooms left for repair and the owner's cash retirement fund.
Gang members first cut through the roof of neighboring Dr. Conkey's Candy & Coffee, crawled through the store, spray-painted security cameras.
The Jewelers' Security Alliance's (JSA) says so-called "wall-entry burglaries" - a category that also covers roof entries - are on the rise. There were 20 in 2023 and 53 in 2024 (see this week's Memo).
Owner Jacoub Youssef, and his son Jonathan said they'd lost "a lifetime's worth of work".
Jonathan told the Los Angeles Times: "They were no slouches, and this wasn't their first rodeo.
"They knew where the cameras were, how to evade detection and what equipment to use to get into the safe."
Surveillance TV grab shows one of the raiders crawling through the adjacent candy store.