Thieves Steal 2 Handbags Worth $45,000 From Milpitas Store
MILPITAS (CBS SF) -- Smash and grab thieves targeted another Bay Area luxury store Wednesday after a pair of purses worth more than $45,000 were stolen from a Milpitas mall, according to authorities.
The thieves entered the Neiman Marcus Last Call store at the Great Mall in Milpitas to execute the high-end handbag heist.
The suspects made their way towards a group of glass cases where the most expensive purses from manufacturers like Fendi and Prada are kept, locked up behind glass or tied down with metal cables.
The scene was cleaned up by afternoon, but police said the two male African-American suspects smashed the glass case and took two handbags made by Hermes with a retail value of at least $20,000 each.
It's unclear exactly which bags were stolen, but according to the Hermes website, the bags advertised range from $20,000 to $27,000.
"It's not surprising, considering there has been a lot of smash and grabs at this mall and a lot of robberies at this mall," said mall employee Deena Salfiti. "So it's not that surprising to me honestly."
The Bay Area has seen a spate of smash and grab robberies over the past few months.
In December, crooks used an SUV to ram the front of the Apple store in Palo Alto. 20 people converged on the store all at once, grabbing thousands of dollars of electronics in 45 seconds.
Apple stores in San Francisco, Berkeley, Burlingame, Corte Madera and Los Gatos have all been hit.
Also last fall, 16 members of the so-called Rainbow Girls were finally arrested in San Francisco after years of robberies where they would swarm into stores in large groups, grabbing merchandise and running off.
According to authorities, the two suspects were last seen driving away on I-880 in a white SUV with paper plates.