Police say the men distracted employees to take thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from different jewelry stores - KFSN-TV
Police say the men distracted employees to take thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from different jewelry stores - KFSN-TV
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) --
Police say the men distracted employees to take thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from different jewelry stores.Store owners say the suspect was able to distract an employee for just a few moments but it was long enough for the other two suspects to reach over the counter, and get away with more than 17,000 dollars worth of jewelry.
It only took a little distraction for three suspects to get away with thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from two North Valley stores.
Watch as one of the suspects distracts the employee, the other quickly reaches over the counter and takes the merchandise. Madera Police say the suspects got away with about 73 hundred dollars worth of items from Leighton Jewelry in early October.
"They had the story that they were purchasing something for a relative," said Pearson.
Sherry Pearson of Pearson's Jewelry in Los Banos says three men also came into her store about an hour after the incident in Madera.
"Normally three men don't come in to shop together so, and never had seen them...so that put up a red flag," said Pearson.
Pearson says her husband was working at the time, one of the suspects started to distract him while the other thieves were quick to snatch 17 thousand dollars worth of jewelry.
"The third perp reached over this counter which was unlocked"
Pearson claims the suspects in Madera's incident were the same ones who came into her shop.
"It looked like they had done this before...looking at the video they seemed to go to areas go high dollar value," Pearson.
Los Banos Police Detectives are now working alongside Madera Investigators to find the men in the video.
Detective Sean Bayard says they do have some investigative leads, and it is possible the brazen criminals could be from out of the area.
"Due to the fact that they did not conceal their identity and commit the crime locally... I don't recognize them and none of the other detectives could identify them off the bat," said Baynard.
Pearson says she plans to upgrade her surveillance and be more vigilant of who comes through her doors.
"It's sad that we have to be so watchful...but be vigilant," said Pearson.
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