Video captures burglars ransacking a jewelry store and escaping with an estimated $300,000 worth of jewelry in San Bernardino County.
The group is believed to be responsible for at least seven break-ins targeting San Bernardino County businesses in the early morning hours of Dec. 19.
One of the victims, Abraham Tekin, the owner of Ozel Jewelers in Victorville, said the thieves destroyed his business while escaped with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise.
“Five guys breaking in the window first, the glass, the door panel and then they cut the rebar,” Tekin said.
Surveillance video captured the suspects arriving at the shop around 3:40 a.m. A masked and hooded suspect peers through the front door. Moments later, they shatter the glass and begin sawing through the metal security bars.
Five thieves entered the building and began shattering the jewelry display cases. The suspects are seen quickly grabbing the merchandise and stuffing it into a trash bin they brought with them.
Although the store’s owner has not taken full inventory of everything that was lost, he estimated the thieves escaped with around $300,000 worth of jewelry.
“It is interrupting our business,” Tekin said. “It’s disgusting.”
Tekin owns three jewelry shops and said within this year alone, he was been robbed three times.
Tekin’s shop was one of seven nearby businesses burglarized on the same day including a Best Buy, a medicine shop in Hesperia, and a pharmacy in Victorville.
“The Victorville Sheriff’s Department responded within four minutes,” Tekin said. “They just missed them within 18 seconds.”
Tekin hopes the suspects are caught soon before they strike another business. He said the issues of brazen burglaries seem to be all too common nowadays.
“I blame the policymakers in Sacramento who are passing such lenient laws and they don’t do anything with them,” Tekin said. “There’s no consequences. I just hope our Californian voters will pick a candidate and look at who is really for California.”
Although one of the front doors is still in disrepair, Tekin said he has no choice but to continue opening to the public as the holidays are his busiest time of year.
No suspect descriptions were released and no arrests have been made as authorities investigate the case. Deputies are also working to determine whether the burglaries are connected.