Crime & Safety
Thieves Rob Long Beach Jewelry Store
They first neutralize a clerk and customer with pepper spray, police said.
Three masked robbers struck a Long Beach jewelry store Thursday, swiftly disabling a clerk and customer with pepper spray in a smash-and-grab heist, police said.
The robbery happened about 1:45 p.m. at the Rush-A-Fix Jewelry & Watch Repair, 495 W. Willow St., according to Sgt. Aaron Eaton of the Long Beach Police Department. The thieves broke glass countertops and and stole an unknown amount of jewelry, but not before spraying the clerk and customer with pepper spray.
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This incapacitated the two victims, during which time the thieves broke jewelry cases and stole an undetermined amount of jewelry. Eaton said that detectives had not seen nor heard of thieves using pepper spray, which was designed to help victims protect themselves from aggressors.
He said that both the clerk and the customer used a bucket of water outside the store to wash the caustic material out of their eyes. Both were checked out by Long Beach Fire Department paramedics, but Eaton said he understood one of them later went to a hospital.
The thieves fled in a small, light-colored SUV. There was no description of the suspects. Eaton said that detectives would be talking to both victims later to figure out what happened and find the thieves.
--City News Service
He said that both the clerk and the customer used a bucket of water outside the store to wash the caustic material out of their eyes. Both were checked out by Long Beach Fire Department paramedics, but Eaton said he understood one of them later went to a hospital.
The thieves fled in a small, light-colored SUV. There was no description of the suspects. Eaton said that detectives would be talking to both victims later to figure out what happened and find the thieves.
--City News Service
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