Police Believe Men Who Robbed Tapper's Jewelry Held Up Another Store Same Day
WEST BLOOMFIELD (WWJ) - A $17,000 reward is now being offered to help police catch the robbers who held up Tapper's Diamonds & Fine Jewelry in West Bloomfield at gunpoint this week.
Lt. Curt Lawson of the West Bloomfield Police says they believe the same suspects held up Paul Medawar Fine Jewelry in Plainfield Twp. on the west side of the state earlier the same day.
"It is unusual, and at first we didn't believe that that was the case — that someone would get shot at, or actually shot, in Kent County and then travel to West Bloomfield to do another robbery," Lawson said. "But we're convinced at this point that they're the same people."
Lt. Lawson said three armed robbers who entered the West Bloomfield store on Orchard Lake Road on Tuesday ordered everyone to the ground, forcibly pushed several people down, and demanded one employee to open up a glass merchandise case. The suspects escaped with Rolex watches, according to witnesses
No one was hurt.
Lawson said police have been examining surveillance tape as an investigation continues.
"We are getting the surveillance video from our store as well as Medawar Jewelers enhanced," he said. "We are following up on tips. We are looking at our in-car patrol video cameras to see if there is anything on there of interest. So, we're spending a lot of time looking at video at this point, and that's going to take several days."
All three suspects are described as black males wearing dark clothing. Police only have a detailed description of one suspect — a man with a heavy build, 5 feet 10 inches tall to 6 feet 2 inches tall, and about 220 lbs. with a beard. The other two suspects were wearing bandannas. Two were armed with handguns and the third had a hammer.
A fourth suspect was waiting inside a getaway van, described as a late-model dark-colored Chrysler Town & Country.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call West Bloomfield Police at 248-975-9200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. As always, callers to Crime Stoppers may remain anonymous.