A cadre of thieves sieged a Sunnyvale jewelry store, using a car to smash through the door and hammers to shatter display cases before absconding with a treasure trove of jewelry.
On June 29 at 2:45 p.m., thieves drove a stolen silver Lexus GS350 through the front doors of Manisha Jewelers, 1053 E. El Camino Real. Then, a dozen masked men swarmed the store, surveillance footage shows, looting an undisclosed amount of jewelry.
The footage shows that the men managed the heist in roughly 90 seconds. After the lightning-quick theft, the men filed into four waiting cars and fled.
They left the car used to breach the doors at the scene. Sunnyvale police later determined the car was stolen.
When responding to the call, police spotted one of the suspects’ vehicles near the intersection of Henderson Avenue and El Camino Real failing to yield, Capt. Dzahn Le, public information officer for the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email.
When police attempted a traffic stop, the driver fled, causing police to chase the culprits. However, in the interest of public safety, they abandoned the pursuit.
Le wrote that several conditions contribute to police abandoning a pursuit in the interest of public safety, including, but not limited to:
- The distance between police and the suspect is so great that further pursuit would be futile or require the pursuit to continue for an unreasonable time and/or distance.
- The suspect’s location is no longer definitely known.
- The police car sustains damage or a mechanical failure that renders it unsafe to drive.
- The cop car’s emergency lighting equipment or siren becomes inoperable.
- Hazards to uninvolved bystanders or motorists.
- The danger that the continued pursuit poses to the public, the officers, or the suspect, balanced against the risk of allowing the suspect to remain at large.
- The identity of the suspect is known and it does not reasonably appear that the need for immediate capture outweighs the risks associated with continuing the pursuit.
During the heist, thieves attacked and injured one of the store’s employees. A neighbor to the mayhem told CBS News that the victim was the store owner, but Le would not confirm that information.
The victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Paramedics transported him to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for treatment, where he remained as of July 1.
The heist is similar to another similar smash-and-grab operation in Sunnyvale in April, where would-be thieves used a stolen car to smash the front door of another local jewelry store. In that incident, however, the store owner brandished a handgun, causing the culprits to flee.
This is an active investigation. Anyone with information related to the robbery at Manisha Jewelers is encouraged to contact Detective G. Limon at (408) 730-7110.
Contact David Alexander at d.todd.alexander@gmail.com
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