A recent investigation into a car theft quickly turned into something much more interesting: a well-planned smash & grab heist at a jewelry store in Modesto.
The offenders drove their car straight through the entrance of Sai Jewelers on May 18, just before 6 PM. Criminals followed this with a well-planned and quick raid. According to the Modesto PD, several masked suspects in black gloves took the store by storm and stole quite a few valuable jewelry pieces. Then the suspects quickly drove away from the scene.
Video report from ABC10.
Luckily, this incident was captured by surveillance equipment. The footage shows over a dozen people heading toward the front of the shop as soon as the vehicle hit it, and several cars pulling up outside the building.
Officers had already been looking into a stolen car case earlier that day after an automatic license plate reader had given them a warning. Soon, it became clear that this lead is connected to the mentioned robbery. The authorities managed to identify the car, which was connected to both crimes after some additional investigation. Furthermore, officers saw similar items inside the stolen car to the ones that were used in the robbery.
Photo courtesy of Modesto Police Department
In total, four men have been brought into custody. The authorities identify the following suspects: Oakland residents Nasir Blocker and Anton Crawford, Gangster Lawson from El Cerrito, and California resident Nehemiah Miller. Naturally, all of them have serious charges regarding the car theft and robbery. Nasir has a $2 million bail, whilst the other three suspects are being held on $1 million bail.
According to police officers, the investigation is still on, even though these arrests have advanced the case by quite a bit. They take all possible efforts to identify additional suspects who may have had some connection to these crimes. About ten other people were likely involved in the crime (they were captured by the surveillance), but their identities wait to be revealed.
