Thieves tunneled into LA jewelry store. The large hole found in a back office likely took weeks to dig out, according to the owners of Love Jewels, a family-owned shop in downtown Los Angeles.
“They went in there every night, slowly dug it until there was enough room for them to get in. The building next door is an abandoned theater and a vacant shop. There’s always homeless going in there. Anyone was able to go in.”
The shop owner and his family are still shaken up and don’t want to be shown on camera after they say millions of dollars in cash and merchandise were stolen.
“Upwards to $20 million was taken from us. In the gold business you reinvest everything so all our money was what was in the safe.”
Police are not confirming that number, but they are investigating.
The break-in happened around 10 o’clock Sunday night. “They were able to disable the cameras, disable the alarm. And they were able to get in the safes. They probably had about 5-6 hours in here. The safe was cut in two.”
The owners of Love Jewels believe this was the work of professionals. “Just drilling that hole in the safe right there probably took them 3 hours.”
This is certainly not the first time criminals have crawled their way into stores in this area.
“Over a single night I lost over $1.2 million.” Two blocks away, another jewelry shop owner says thieves tunneled their way into his store just last year.
“We need more protection. This is something that it could happen to anyone. And I don’t feel safe now.”
Source: raialkhalij + aljazeera