Employees of Princess Bride Diamonds in Huntington Beach fought back when a group of people tried to rob them Sunday. Darsha Philips reports from the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on May 22, 2022.
Employees of a jewelry store in Huntington Beach fought back when a group of thieves attempted a smash-and-grab heist on Sunday.
The attempted robbery took place around noon at the Princess Bride Diamonds jewelry store in the Bella Terra shopping center, according to the Huntington Beach Police Department.
Surveillance video shows four hooded suspects entering the store and then one of them pulls out a hammer and begins smashing a display case glass.
The store's employees spring into action and confront the would-be robbers, footage shows, punching and kicking the subjects until they retreated out the door.
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Siblings Sarah and Dallas Baca, who work at the family-owned business, said they were in the back of the store when Dallas noticed the reflection of the group of people with hoods coming into the store.
"I didn't think too much going into it, I just kind of reacted," Dallas said. "I feel like you never think it's gonna happen to you but you always know it's a possibility, in the back of your mind."
Dallas can be seen in the surveillance video punching several suspects while Sarah, "looking for something big and heavy to hit them with," grabs a stool and strikes one of the would-be robbers.
According to Huntington Beach police, the robbers made out with roughly $7,700 in jewelry before fleeing.
"UPDATE: The victim, Princess Bride Diamonds, has reported a loss of approximately $7,700 in jewelry as a result of the smash & grab incident," Huntington Beach PD said on Twitter on Monday morning.
While the family was aware of other smash-and-grab robberies in their area, this was their first experience with the kind of brazen heist plaguing upscale stores in major U.S. cities. The family owned jewelry story has been in business since 2006.
"That's definitely very frustrating. They feel like they can get away with it," Sarah said. "But I'm really happy that we were able to stop that from happening."
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No further details were immediately available.
