Caught on video: Brazen armed jewelry store heist leaves San Ramon residents shaken
SAN RAMON -- The brazen daylight armed robbery of a jewelry store at the upscale City Center Bishop Ranch shopping center in San Ramon has left shoppers and business owners shaken.
It happened on Friday around 2:30 p.m. at Heller Jewelers and was recorded by multiple people on their cellphones in addition to the store security cameras.
The videos showed gunmen pointing a gun a security guard who worked for the store. Other robbers could be seen smashing display cases and taking expensive items.
The family-owned store is known to sell high-end jewelry and Rolex watches.
"It looked unreal for a moment," said Luca Zanet, the general manager at Delarosa, a restaurant located across from the jewelry store. "You had to do a double take."
Zanet witnessed it and said the robbery was happening with hundreds of shoppers nearby.
"This place was packed with kids," he told KPIX. "A lot more than this because (Friday) was a day off from school, St. Patrick's Day, it was a lot going on. So this place was happening."
Witnesses said they saw seven robbers, some with guns.
No one was injured but many shoppers said the robbery shattered their sense of safety in this affluent neighborhood.
"I feel really bad and I feel really sorry. San Ramon is a really safe city," said Shan Gao, a shopper and San Ramon mother who was at the shopping center on Saturday with her family.
"They must have scoped it and checked it out. They knew exactly where they were going. They went in and they went out in two or three minutes," Zanet said. "It's getting worse because the Nike store got hit twice already and then Sunglass Hut -- they got hit five times already (this year)."
San Ramon police did not respond to a KPIX request for more information on Friday's robbery and they did not say if anyone was arrested.
