Smash-and-grab thieves make off with up to $5M in jewelry in daylight robbery at Beverly Hills store

Thirty second smash-and-grab heist nets Beverly Hills sledgehammer gang $5MILLION in jewelry as terrified locals watch in disbelief

Cameras caught the moment a jewelry store in Beverly Hills lost millions in merchandise in a smash-and-grab robbery in broad daylight on Tuesday afternoon. 

The incident took place at the Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills at the corner of South Beverly Drive and Charleville Boulevard at about 2 p.m.

         A jewelry store in Beverly Hills was hit by smash-and-grab robbers Tuesday who remain at large

Peter Sedghi, the store's owner, told ABC7LA that the merchandise taken was valued between $3-5million, with one necklace alone worth nearly $500,000.

Sedghi added that he thought he'd heard gunshots and came outside with his gun.

'It literally sounded like gunshots, so I told my staff, I yelled out, 'everyone down on the floor,'' Sedghi said.

Employees pushed the store's panic button and Sedghi waited until the noise stopped to head outside.

Wesley Aframian, who owns a business next door, told reporters he tried to stop the suspect before they got away.

'I look outside, I see, there are five guys with sledgehammers, axes, hammers, they're banging on the window,' Aframian said. 'And you know, we're a jewelry store, they're a jewelry store. We're good friends with them. They're very good people. I just reacted and tried to stop them.'

He did say that he managed to get a kick in on one of the robbers and was able to grab some of the watches they were trying to take back.

Larceny has become a statewide problem in California of late, with the trend having spread from San Francisco down to the LA area.

Roving gangs of criminals have been carrying out brazen smash-and-grab robberies, targeting high-end stores like Louis Vuitton and Burberry, but also national chains like Walgreens and CVS.

Walgreens said last year that retail theft in San Francisco was five times the chain average and security costs were 46 times the chain average, reported San Francisco Chronicle.

According to the latest available crime data, grand larceny rates in California's liberal bastion were up 19 per cent in late February, compared with the same period last year.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has vowed to crack down on gangs of retail thieves, despite a controversial 2014 law - Proposition 47 - that barred prosecutors from charging suspected shoplifters accused of stealing less than $950 worth of merchandise with felonies.

Crime is up about eight percent from last year's already high numbers in the city of Los Angeles through March 19, according to the city's own statistics. Robberies are up four percent.