San Jose: Six arrested in serial smash-and-grab jewelry store heists

SAN JOSE — Six younger males have been arrested in connection to a string of smash-and-grab jewellery retailer robberies in San Jose final fall and are suspected of comparable crimes elsewhere within the Bay Space and Northern California, police introduced Monday morning.

Theft detectives with the San Jose Police Division, working with different law-enforcement businesses within the area, recognized six males between the ages of 18 and 20 they contend dedicated a number of robberies of bijou shops between October and January, police mentioned.

The group “used sledgehammers and instruments to interrupt open glass show instances and take 1000’s of {dollars}’ price of bijou,” based on investigators. In some cases, they allegedly carried weapons and pepper spray, and after the thefts ran to ready automobiles to flee, police mentioned.

Final Thursday, San Jose and Daly Metropolis police served arrest and search warrants within the case.

5 of the boys have been charged with felonies by the Santa Clara County District Lawyer’s Workplace: Michael Earle, 18, whose listed residences are Menlo Park and Oakland; Charles Evans, 19, of San Leandro; Andrew Maravilla Lopez, 20, of Hayward; Maurice Candy, 19, of Pittsburg; and Noah Tekle, 19, of San Leandro.

Earle, Maravilla Lopez and Tekle are being held with out bail within the Elmwood males’s jail, based on jail information. Evans and Candy are being held on the identical facility in lieu of respective bail quantities of $200,000 and $100,000. A sixth particular person arrested, a 20-year-old Newark resident, has not been charged.

San Jose police and the Santa Clara County District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned the group has been tied to high-profile smash-and-grab jewellery retailer robberies together with ones reported Oct. 29 at Eastridge Mall and Jan. 3 on the La Placita Tropicana purchasing middle on Story Street.

Within the Jan. 3 occasion — which was captured on safety video — authorities say a gaggle used yellow and black hammers to interrupt show instances, and that one of many suspects hit a feminine worker on the pinnacle with one of many hammers.

Prosecutors additionally say the group tried unsuccessfully to steal jewellery Nov. 5 from a retailer in Valley Honest wherein they reported couldn’t break by way of safety glass, and so they fled after safety guards chased them.

All the thefts occurred within the midst of a spate of group-oriented retail burglaries and robberies throughout the area.

The search warrants led to the seizure of a number of weapons together with what police described as two assault weapons with prolonged magazines, considered one of which was modified for computerized fireplace. Additionally they reported confiscating molds and instruments they consider was used to assemble, produce or modify firearms. The gun recoveries led to 2 different individuals, not linked to the robberies, being arrested for unrelated weapons crimes.

Different police businesses concerned within the case included departments in Antioch, Harmony, Merced, Palo Alto, Pittsburg, San Mateo and Roseville, in addition to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Anybody with details about the robberies can contact SJPD Theft Detective Amanda Estantino at 408-277-4166 or depart a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.

Test again later for updates to this story.