$2 million in cash, jewelry stolen in brazen Simi Valley heist: “These guys were professional thieves”

KCAL, KCBS, TED MACKEL, CNN

By Laurie Perez, Dean Fioresi

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    SIMI VALLEY, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Surveillance camera video captured the moment that a group of suspects burglarized two Simi Valley businesses overnight, including $2 million in stolen cash and product taken from a jewelry store.

It happened in the 2800 block of Cochran Street over the weekend, at around midnight on Sunday, says Ted Mackel, who owns Dr. Conkey’s Candy & Coffee. His shop was how the suspects gained access to the jewelry store next door.

He says that they entered the building through the roof over the bathroom behind his business, entered through the door and slid across the floor towards some shelves.

It’s there that video shows them drilling through the wall and directly into the safe of 5 Star Jewelry and Repair.

“These guys were professional thieves. They had a plan, they must’ve cased us,” said Jonathan Youssef, who owns the impacted store with his father Jacob.

At first, they thought that nothing inside of their business was stolen, but upon opening the safe, they realized that they had been hit without the suspect every stepping foot inside.

They took off with every piece of gold jewelry the store had, every luxury watch and multiple other irreplaceable items.

“So, they cut through her wall into my safe and stole everything that me and my dad have accumulated for our business over the past 25 years,” Youssef said. “The worst part about the loss of property that we had was the customers that we built up over that same period. Trust us with their heirloom jewelry to repair and unfortunately, some of that jewelry, all of that jewelry, was stolen.”

They estimate that $2 million in jewelry was taken. They’re working to secure loans to replace the stolen gold and replicate the heirloom pieces that were taken.

On top of the material goods, but Mackel and Youssef say that they had something else taken from them in the four-hour window that the thieves were operating.

“Was enough for them to drill through and take everything that we have, including my dad’s retirement, including my future. Every single thing that we had,” Youssef said.

“These are the people, the families you go to church with, the families that your kids are in school with, run all these businesses and when things like this happen, it’s devastating,” Mackel said. “It’s absolutely devastating.”

So far, investigators have not yet released any description of the suspects or announced any arrests.

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