A Florida smash-and-grab failed at the latter as footage captured would-be burglars backing a truck through the front entry of a jewelry store.
(Video: WPLG)
Thursday morning, police in Aventura, Florida received a call at 6:14 a.m. after alarms were tripped at the International Jewelers Exchange moments earlier on Biscayne Blvd. As seen on surveillance footage obtained by WPLG, a flatbed tow truck could be seen pulling up in front of the retail location before a seemingly planned-out crime went awry.
“Se partió,” the news outlet reported one of three masked men was heard saying after the truck had plowed through the front doors of the store as they quickly realized the theft would not go the way they imagined it. The expression was roughly translated from Spanish as “something broke.”
“Three individuals in ski masks back the vehicle into the store, ran around frantically, couldn’t apparently pull it off, I should say,” detailed International Jewelers Exchange head of security Tony Austin who spoke with WPLG. “They had tried to hook up the equipment, but that didn’t work and they fled. They left the tow truck.”
Adding further detail, he explained, “Alarms were activated, police were notified and they responded ASAP.”
“This place is not to be messed with. Security is airtight, like Fort Knox,” contended Austin.
To his point, a man with a booth at the store spoke with WSVN and explained another hangup for the would-be thieves. As seen in the video, there didn’t appear to be merchandise in the glass cases, and the vendor suggested that was a standard precaution.
“It’s normal, nobody ever leaves something in the case, they always put it in the safe. We never leave stuff in the case, on the showcase, always in the safe,” he detailed.
While the vehicle used to plow through the front of the store was located nearby, police sought assistance from the public in tracking down the suspects.
The errant burglary in Florida came two months after suspects in Lincoln, Nebraska had seemingly botched their own planned heist from a vintage clothing store. Surveillance footage from that incident showed one of three suspects breaking through a window and squeezing his way inside to open the door for his accomplices before they made off with $20,000 worth of shoes.
The trouble with their big heist was that the majority of the merchandise was only left shoes out on display. As explained by Lincoln Crime Stoppers representative Becky on KOLN, “it was reported they only took the left shoe to each pair, they were like display shoes, as the right shoes were stored in another room of the building.”
Thieves target vintage store, but make one hilarious mistake: ‘You heard that right, single shoes’ https://t.co/SVWk19hgxA via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) October 7, 2023
As for the smashed-up store in Florida, a shopper expressed her surprise at the scene to WSVN and said, “I was shocked to come and see it like that, it’s terrible. I was here yesterday last night, it was so nice.”
While some Jewish vendors had expressed concern that the crime may have been perpetrated in connection with antisemitic sentiments in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel, authorities stated the suspected motive was simply theft.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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