Caught On Camera: Burglars Crash Into Palo Alto Bloomingdale's Store, Steal Jewelry
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- In an operation that took just over one minute and caught on security cameras, burglars drove a stolen SUV through the front of a department store in Palo Alto Wednesday morning and stole what police called a "large amount" of jewelry.
It happened at the Bloomingdale's store in the Stanford Shopping Center on the 100 block of El Camino Real shortly after 4:00 a.m.
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Palo Alto police said when security guards arrived at the scene the found the front glass doors had been completely smashed and several glass jewelry display cases just inside the store smashed with the jewelry missing.
Surveillance footage showed a red SUV backing into and smashing the glass doors, followed by three suspects on foot entering the store.
Video from Palo Alto Police Dept.
The three suspects, all wearing black hooded sweatshirts, are then seen smashing the display cases with some sort of instrument and making off with the jewelry. It only takes one minute from the moment the suspects walk in to the moment they exit to the waiting SUV.
Bloomingdale's shopper Pari was shocked by the robbery. "This is a really nice neighborhood. you wouldn't think this would happen here, so I'm just shocked a little bit," she said.
Police said the stolen SUV was found unoccupied nearly six hours later on the 200 block of Palo Alto Ave.
Investigators said no specific descriptions of the suspects were available, and their race and gender were not discernible from the surveillance images.
There was no immediate word on the dollar amount of the loss. Police said the case was similar to another overnight smash-and-grab burglary at a photography store in Palo Alto in February.
