Authorities arrested four men following a smash-and-grab robbery in which a group of 20 flooded a jewelry store.
On the evening of May 18, members of a gang used a stolen vehicle to ram into Sai Jewelers’ front doors, the Modesto, California, Police Department said last week in a Facebook post. Once the first car had slammed into the business, several additional vehicles full of suspects showed up at the scene.
Some of the subjects, who were all wearing hoodies, masks and gloves, were armed with hammers, according to the Jewelers’ Security Alliance (JSA). The robbers stole a large quantity of jewelry from the store and exited in under 90 seconds, with five getaway vehicles leaving the scene.
A few minutes before the robbery, police officers were investigating a stolen vehicle after it was flagged by a license plate camera. Information the police learned during the investigation of that car led them to believe the two incidents were related. Using a citywide camera system, authorities located the stolen car and arrested the four individuals inside. During the arrest, the police found items similar to those used in the jewelry-store robbery, Modesto police said.
The four suspects arrested are Nasir Blocker, who has been set bail of $2 million, and Anton Crawford, Gangster Lawson and Nehemiah Miller, who have all been set bail of $1 million. The police have linked the crew to similar incidents in other California cities, including Oakland, Alameda Country and Beverly Hills, the noted. The investigation is still ongoing, and authorities are working to identify and locate the rest of the individuals involved in the robbery.
Image: A broken jewelry store window. (Shutterstock)
