FREMONT — Four people have been charged with felonies for allegedly participating in a $1.7 million jewelry store robbery, court records show.
The suspects, all men aged 18 and 19, were charged with second degree robbery, receiving stolen property, and a misdemeanor count of resisting police. They pleaded not guilty last month, and are out of custody while the case is pending, records show.
Police describe it as a brazen, unsophisticated robbery that occurred around 5:30 p.m. on June 18, targeting a jewelry store on the 5100 block of Mowry Avenue in Fremont. The four suspects were arrested a short time after the the robbery, and led police on a car chase, then a short foot pursuit, authorities said.
The four were part of a much larger group who arrived in nine suspected stolen vehicles, smashed through the front in a stolen 2018 Honda Accord, and swarmed inside, donning ski masks and gloves and using blunt objects to smash display cases to ransack the place.
Both the store owner and his wife were inside during the incident and fled to the back while it was going on. One of the suspected robbers was seen on video surveillance carrying a pistol, authorities said.
The four defendants loaded into a stolen Acura TLX and hit speeds as high as 70 miles per hour through Fremont streets. One of them confessed to police, authorities said.
The convoy the robbers used consisted of cars that had been reported stolen all around the Bay Area, including Concord, Hayward and San Francisco, authorities said.