AVENTURA, Florida – Thieves crashed a vehicle through an Aventura jewellery store early Thursday morning, but investigators don’t believe they made off with any merchandise. But the store’s head of security thinks he knows exactly what they were after – a safe.
Aventura police said a call came in about 6:14 a.m. about the burglary in progress and they quickly responded to the International Jewelers Exchange at 19275 Biscayne Blvd.
Detectives say they believe the robbery was thwarted due to the quick arrival of police, although they are still assessing the damage and gathering information.
“Alarms were activated and the police were notified and they responded as quickly as possible,” said Tony Austin, head of security at the International Jewelers Exchange.
Austin said there was surveillance video of the crime in progress, showing the thieves using a tow truck to plough through the front windows.
“There were three hooded individuals wearing ski masks, they backed the vehicle in, ran frantically around the store, apparently couldn’t make it, tried to hook up the equipment and fled. In fact, they left the tow truck behind”.
Damage to the front of the store was extensive. On Friday, workers were putting up plywood and the shop remained closed.
There were concerns from some of the traders, many of whom are Jewish, that the attempted break-in might have been hate-related or racially motivated because of the current war in Israel. We asked the police and they said that there was no indication that this was the case and that it appeared that the motive was simply an attempt to steal.
There were no injuries and the suspects are still at large.
