VIDEO: Armed Jewelry Store Owner Foils Hold Up at Redwood City Shop
REDWOOD CITY (CBS SF) – Authorities released video Wednesday of a failed robbery attempt at a Redwood City jewelry store in the hopes of identifying the three suspects who fled after being confronted by the store's owners.
Surveillance video shows the moment three masked gunmen stormed into Plaza Jewelers Monday evening, ordered everyone to the ground, and demanded their money and jewelry. But they're seen frantically running out of the store seconds later -- after the store owner shot at them.
"If he didn't have a gun, they would have taken everything," Rosalva Farias, co-owner of Plaza Jewelers, said about her husband shooting at the would-be robbers.
Farias and her husband own the jewelry shop on Middlefield Road in unincorporated Redwood City. She said that when he saw the armed intruders, he shot his gun, and he nearly hit one of the masked suspects. None of them reportedly shot back.
A few weeks ago, a similar situation happened in San Bruno at a jewelry shop in the Tanforan mall. A shop owner stopped an attempted armed robbery when he pulled out a gun and pointed at the suspects, but he didn't pull the trigger.
"There's a lot of crazy people out on the streets," Farias said.
While the shop owner's tactic worked out this time, a spokesperson for the San Mateo County Sheriff's office told KPIX 5 presenting a gun during the course of a robbery is a very dangerous thing to do. Items can be replaced -- lives cannot.
"Nothing happened. Everybody is fine. I feel grateful, but I'm nervous," Farias said.
Farias says burglars have hit her jewelry shop before and there was an attempted armed robbery there nearly 10 years ago, but there's never been a situation like the one they saw Monday.
"Nobody got hurt. Thank God," she said.
Police haven't arrested the suspects as of press time.
Anyone with information about the robbery was encouraged to call the sheriff's office at 650-363-4911 or provide an anonymous tip at 800-547-2700.
