HOUSTON—A trio of brazen thieves swinging sledgehammers charged into a jewelry store in northwest Harris County Wednesday afternoon, smashing glass cases in a heist that investigators say lasted about 45 seconds.
The robbery happened at the Zales Outlet Store located in a busy shopping center on FM 1960.
The masked men wore black clothing, masks and gloves, hunching their bodies in what witnesses interpreted as an attempt to disguise their height.
“We were all afraid, because we all know how crazy people are these days,” said William Cook, a retiree who was inside the store. “They’ll hurt you just for the fun of hurting you.”
Cook, his wife and two store employees ran into a back room, where one of the workers triggered an alarm.
The crime happened so fast, witnesses offered investigators only sketchy information about the robbers’ appearance. Their faces and bodies were so thoroughly covered, witnesses weren’t even sure about the thieves’ ethnicity. But investigators were reviewing surveillance video of the robbery.
Claudine Taylor was picking up a sandwich at a nearby store when she saw the robbers running to their getaway car, a white four-door sedan with paper plates.
“They came out like in a hunch … like they were trying to hide how tall they were,” Taylor said.
A jeweler, who operates a store in the same area, expressed surprise, partly because the robbers targeted an outlet store that didn’t carry some of the more valuable merchandise that is commonly targeted by jewel thieves.
A similar heist happened in southwest Houston shortly before Christmas, but there was no definitive indication that the crimes were connected.
Law enforcement officials asked anyone with information on the robbery to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
