Robber steals more than $150,000 in jewelry, cash from Colorado jewelry store: "It's a kick in the gut."
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry and cash were taken from a local jewelry store. It happened in broad daylight on Monday afternoon, as a male suspect with a mask on robbed Rocky Mountain Custom Jewelry and Loan in Centennial.
Dylan Drury, the manager and salesman, was working at the jewelry store when the robbery happened. Moments before the crime, Drury said it was a normal Monday afternoon at the shop.
"The first thing he told me when he walked in was, 'My girlfriend has COVID, so for my protection and yours, I have a mask on.' I said okay, that's legit," Drury told CBS Colorado. "He seemed like a normal person, so I didn't suspect a thing."
About 20 minutes prior to the robbery, the male suspect was buzzed in at the shop's front door. The suspect then walked around the store, looked at jewelry and made small talk with Drury.
"He held a conversation with me for 20 minutes, and we were just making regular talk like, How's your day going?'" Drury explained.
Then, the suspect made his move.
"He jumped around the counter and told me, 'Get on the floor; I have a weapon,'" Drury said. "I said, 'You have two minutes. Get your stuff and go because the alarms are tripped.'"
Nick Bostedt, the store's owner, also saw the suspect walk in with a mask from the shop's ring camera. Bostedt had left the store not long prior to the suspect arriving.
"I immediately said something's not right about this," said Bostedt, who said he began driving back to the shop.
As he was driving, Bostedt then called the store's phone twice, but Drury didn't answer. He then called Drury's cell phone.
"I said, 'Guy with a mask in there, everything OK? Just doesn't seem right,'" Bostedt explained. "And he said, 'No, it's a customer. He's fine.'"
Minutes after the cell phone conversation between the two brother-in-laws, the suspect pulled out what appeared to be a knife and showed it to Drury. The suspect asked him to get to the ground and empty his pockets. In a matter of two minutes, the suspect got off with more than 50 pieces of jewelry.
"It was north of $150,000 worth of diamond tennis bracelets, diamond rings, stuff like that," Bostedt said.
What's now left behind are empty jewelry cases and holders and the surveillance video of it all happening.
"When I was on the floor, he was actually saying, 'Thank you' for complying. Thank you,' for doing everything because times are tough," Drury said .
Bostedt said his shop was already the target of a crime two months ago. His shop was burglarized in the middle of the night, and the suspect caused $30,000 in damage by smashing glass and taking jewelry. For a business he's owned for about a year, he said it's a "kick in the gut."
"We work very hard for what we have," Bostedt said. "We try to provide for our families, and this shop is a big revenue stream for our whole family, and it's just a kick in the pants when something like this happens."
Bostedt and Drury also credit the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office for their quick response. The two say law enforcement got to the shop in less than a minute.
When deputies arrived, they used K-9s and drones to help find the suspect but were not able to locate him.
Now, the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office is looking for the suspect. He's described to be in his early 20s with a thin build, dark hair and a tattoo under his right ear. He threatened an employee before stealing the jewelry and cash and running away. No one was injured.
A spokesperson with the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office said they're still looking into the suspect and potential leads. There was no update on the investigation at the time of publication.
