Crime and Courts

Video shows moment thief tunnels into DC store and steals over $100,00 in jewelry, police say

The thief went through an abandoned building to get into the store to steal $100,000 worth of gold and watches.

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A thief stole $100,000 worth of merchandise after breaking into a Washington, D.C., jewelry and liquor store through a tunnel in the wall.

The robbery happened between the store's closing hours and 2 a.m. It took the suspect about three hours to break in through the store. During that time, neighbors said that they heard banging noises.

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The suspect broke through an abandoned restaurant building that was going through renovation. They took leftover tools from the building and could have used some to tunnel through the 2-3 feet of brick between the two buildings.

"This is something else," the store owner said. "I opened the store at 10 in the morning and that's when the boxes were down."

The owner said that they hadn't taken inventory of the store yet but estimated that the amount stolen was about $100,000 worth of gold and watches.

This isn't the first time someone has tried to break in. According to the owner, someone tried to break in a couple of weeks ago through the rear wall.

"There's no way to survive something like that when they've just taken all of your inventory out," the owner said. "It's just like, you've been here for over thirty years and something like that happens. That's it.

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