SHELBY TOWNSHIP, MI– — A longtime Shelby Township jewelry store is adjusting after a smash-and-grab theft last week destroyed its storefront and showroom.
Atlas Jewelers co-owner Mark Krumins, who owns the business with Doug Bower, said he woke up at 2 a.m. Oct. 12 to a call from their alarm company reporting broken glass and movement inside the store. When he opened an app on his cellphone to watch a live feed of the in-store cameras, he saw two masked thieves smashing glass display cases and stealing the items inside. He immediately called the police.
“It was obviously super shocking,” Krumins said.
Store surveillance footage captured a vehicle backing into the front door of the business to gain entry. Seconds later, the first thief enters and is seen rapidly smashing the tops of the glass display cases, damaging 13 of the 16 inside the store. The second thief enters the store soon after and both suspects are seen filling garbage bags with jewelry.
Police said surveillance footage showed both individuals wearing dark clothing, face coverings and gloves.
The two thieves seemed to be well organized, according to Krumins, who said they were in and out of the building in under six minutes.
“It was pretty well-thought-out,” he said. “It literally made my heart sink to see the shattered glass everywhere. It looked like a war scene with debris and stuff everywhere.”
When Krumins arrived at the store, which is about seven minutes from his home, the suspects were gone and police were already on the scene.
“The police actually beat me there, which was a good thing,” he said. “Their fast response was amazing.”
Krumins said police determined that the thieves had stolen the car used in the heist from a nearby home.
“The police do have some leads on other cars, and they are doing pretty well on trying to track these guys down,” he said. “These kinds of people need to be taken off the street.”
Shattered glass from broken display cases fills Atlas Jewelers following a smash and grab theft.
Photo provided by Atlas Jewelers
Although most of the showroom inventory was stolen, Krumins said all customer orders, repairs and the store’s most expensive products were locked in safes, which remained untouched inside the store. He estimates the value of the stolen merchandise, consisting primarily of silver jewelry along with some gold and lab-grown diamonds, to be between $30,000 and $50,000.
“They actually didn’t get a whole lot,” Krumins said, noting that some of the items stolen included watches, silver jewelry and more. “They didn’t know it, but a lot of it was sample jewelry. They weren’t precious metals.”
The saddest part about the whole thing, according to Krumins, is really not the loss of the jewelry; it’s the damage to the store, which he said is “really costly.”
“Instead of just breaking a store window, they smashed the door with a car, so we are dealing with structural repairs and the whole entryway has to be redone,” he said.
Although Atlas Jewelers did not have a complete estimate for the total repairs at press time, Krumins estimated the damage to displays alone totaled nearly $14,000, with at least another $6,000 for entry repairs.
“The worst part of this is how disruptive it is to doing business as usual,” he said. “It’s just really rough.”
Although the showroom is temporarily closed, Atlas Jewelers plans to conduct business with customers via phone and from one of the shop doors of the business.
“Shopwise, we are still working, because there are people who are getting engaged and have weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and things like that,” Krumins said. “It’s not going to be business as usual, but we are still taking care of things and it’s going to expand more and more every day until we’re back to normal.”
Article provided by Shelby-Utica News by Mary Beth Almond, click HERE to view.
If you have any information regarding this incident or information on these criminals, please contact the Jewelers’ Security Alliance at jsa2@jewelerssecurity.org or 212-687-0328.