Thieves ram vehicle into Sunnyvale jewelry store, evade police after stealing merchandise
A group of thieves stole merchandise from a Sunnyvale jewelry store on Sunday after ramming a vehicle into the building in the middle of the day and later evading police during a chase, authorities said.
The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety that the incident began at about 2:45 p.m. Sunday at a jewelry store on the 1000 block of East El Camino Real between Poplar and Henderson Avenues.
After using a stolen vehicle to smash into the building, multiple suspects entered the store and used hammers to smash display cases, stealing an undisclosed amount of jewelry, the DPS said. The suspects then fled in several waiting vehicles, leaving the stolen vehicle behind.
A security video captured the incident, showing that the entire operation - from the moment the vehicle smashed into the store until the last thief left - lasted less than 90 seconds.
A neighbor of the store witnessed the theft and lamented over the brazen nature of the operation in broad daylight.
"They were fearless. It seemed like they were not afraid of any consequences," neighbor Sonal Kumar told CBS News Bay Area. "It seemed like they were confident that they wouldn't get caught. So, it's - I don't know, as, like, the general public, how are we supposed to react and feel safe?"
One person inside the store was injured during the incident and was taken to a hospital. The injuries were not life-threatening, the DPS said. Kumar said the person injured was the store owner, who was sitting at a desk and was hurt when the car backed into the front of the store. She said he was being treated in the hospital's ICU.
During the police response, officers located one of the suspect vehicles and attempted to pull it over, but the driver fled instead with officers giving chase, the DPS said. The pursuit was later ended in the interest of public safety, according to DPS.
Anyone with information about the incident was encouraged to contact Detective G. Limon at (408) 730-7110.
On March 30, a group of thieves used a stolen car to ram another jewelry store in Sunnyvale, less than a mile west on El Camino Real between S. Wolfe Road and Maria Lane. In that incident, a store employee confronted the driver with a gun, and the suspects fled without stealing anything, the DPS said.
On June 20, a similar attempted theft happened at a jewelry store in Dublin, with thieves using a stolen car to breach the store's security gates. because the store's owner had removed merchandise from display cases after hearing about yet another similar smash-and-grab theft from a Fremont jewelry store two days prior.
