Dramatic security footage shows the moment three masked thieves smash a truck through the front of a Florida jewelry store — and then leave empty-handed.
A loud bang and the sound of shattering glass can be heard the minute the flatbed truck backs through the front entrance of International Jewelers Exchange in Aventura, destroying the doors and display cases, video obtained by WPLG shows.
Three men get out of the car and can be heard yelling to each other in Spanish as they climb over the debris, according to the video. They don’t appear to go after the jewelry but enter another room off to the side of the store.
Just three minutes after the break-in, the thieves fled in the car without stealing a single thing, leaving the mess behind. They later ditched the truck, police said.
Police said they believe they left so quickly due to law enforcement’s swift response time, or perhaps due to the store’s state-of-the art security system.
“Alarms were activated and police were notified and they responded ASAP,” Tony Austin, head of security at International Jewelers Exchange, told WPLG.
Austin said that the thieves may have been trying to get to a safe inside the store.
“Three individuals in ski masks back the vehicle into to store, ran around frantically, and couldn’t apparently pull it off. They tried to hook up the equipment, but it didn’t work and they fled, they left the tow truck,” he said. “This place is not to be messed with. Security’s airtight, like Fort Knox,” said Austin.
Some of the store’s vendors, many of whom are Jewish, were initially concerned that the attack may have been targeted in light of Israel’s war with Hamas, however police said there was no indication that was the case.
The motive was simply to steal, cops said.
