Masked robbers on run after Jared diamond heist at Dayton Mall

Police are seeking public help in finding three masked men who used hammers to smash jewelry store display cases in a diamond heist at Jared in the height of the holiday shopping season.

Police said nobody was injured in the robbery around 8 p.m. Wednesday of Jared Galleria of Jewelry on Dayton Mall property, where an apparent organized team carried out a specific mission.

“Their faces were covered. They broke open some display cases with hammers. They removed some items, and they fled from the store,” Miami Twp. Capt. John Magill said. “It was very quick.”

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The robbers were able to escape despite increased patrols in the area, Magill said.

“It is exactly why we do stepped-up patrols in the area of the mall,” he said. “We more than double our staffing to try to prevent this sort of activity.”

An employee who called 9-1-1 said the three “had flat hammers, and they busted the glass and they took diamonds out of our cases.”

Other than the hammers, police said they don’t know of any weapons brandished during the robbery at the store at 2760 Miamisburg-Centerville Road.

“They got into what we believe is a black HHR that had had the license plates removed and then fled from the parking lot,” Magill said.

Police records indicate the recovery of diamonds, and Magill said the robbers dropped items outside the store as they escaped.

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Store surveillance video was being processed Thursday afternoon, and authorities did not have an inventory of the items taken or an estimated dollar value, Magill said.

But a police report indicates damage to a jewelry case valued at $4,500.

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The suspects were described by 9-1-1 callers as wearing hooded sweatshirts, ski masks and gloves. Two had a thin build and a third was heavy-set. They fled toward Interstate 75, callers said.

The robbery call came in at 7:58 p.m., police records show, and seven officers responded to the scene.

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