4 suspects use blowtorches to empty safes at jewelry store
By Luzdelia Caballero
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LOS ANGELES (KCAL) — A family-owned jewelry store in Encino is left with virtually nothing after a group of thieves emptied their safes in a Monday morning heist.
Security cameras captured the four masked intruders breaking into Afghan Lapis Jewelry on Ventura Boulevard. They’re heard barking out commands to each other in Spanish while crawling on the ground. They eventually made their way into another room containing the store’s alarm system.
“They dug a hole from teh store that is vacant next door,” the owner’s brother Amir Nassiri said.
Nassiri said they used a blowtorch to slice open the two steel safes and escaped with hundreds of thousands in valuables.
“The safe was cut open, both of them,” Nassiri said. “Everything he had, everything he owned, is gone.”
Nassiri said he and his brother opened the jewelry store more than 42 years ago, but his brother recently took over the business. They did not have insurance.
Days later, the smell of scorched metal still lingers in the safe room.
“He doesn’t know what he is going to do next.
Investigators are trying to determine if the burglary is related to similar heists in Simi Valley and downtown Los Angeles.
An online fundraiser has been created to help the owner of Afghan Lapis.
“He has nothing else to build on, to work on, or anything,” Nassiri said.
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