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Thieves Make Off With Thousands In Jewelry In Long Island Smash-And-Grab

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Thieves stormed a jewelry store at a Long Island mall on a busy shopping day, and they were caught on camera smashing and grabbing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.

Now, as CBS 2's Dave Carlin reported, the police were trying to find them Friday night.

The video shows the three men entering the Tourneau store in Roosevelt Field Mall on Tuesday evening, at first concealing the tools that they planned to use to smash and grab.

When the hammers came out, the men struck the display case with a frenzy. What separated the men from the Rolex watches that they were after is glass so thick that it does not give way easily, so they lifted up the glass panel.

It took them just seconds to grab the watches and flee. A store worker tried and failed to catch up with them.

"We thought it was a gunshot when we heard the smashing," Ann Marie Behling said. "We were frightened. We didn't know what was going on, so we put the store on lockdown."

The suspects were seen fleeing through the Macy's Store and using a green Ford pickup to get away on Ring Road.

One suspect has been described as 5 feet 10 inches tall, he was wearing a light-colored sweatshirt, dark pants, and a skull-cap. A second suspect had a mustache and wore a dark suede jacket. The third was 6 feet 3 inches tall also had a mustache, and wore a dark hooded sweatshirt.

A very similar robbery took place in August at a Tourneau store in Westchester County.

The methods were the same for the Aug. 17, robbery at Westchester Mall in White Plains. Police did not say if the two cases were believed to be connected.

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