Five San Francisco men have been charged with robbery and criminal conspiracy after police said they robbed a jewelry kiosk at a Concord mall.
Officers received calls shortly before 1:30 p.m. June 28 that several men had smashed display cases of a jewelry kiosk at Sunvalley Shopping Center and pepper-sprayed a customer before fleeing the mall, the Concord Police Department said in a news release this week.
Local law enforcement, aided by San Francisco police, tracked the suspects to the city of Richmond, where they were arrested. Police then recovered jewelry taken from the business and five firearms, including several assault-style rifles, two handguns and a drum magazine.
A video, posted on Reddit, captured images of the shattered glass and empty display cases at the Banter kiosk hit by the robbery.
The suspects, all between the ages of 18 and 29, were charged with robbery, criminal conspiracy and other crimes.
They remain in custody, according to Contra Costa County court records, with bail set at $400,000 each.
The mall has been the site of multiple similar thefts in the past. Less than a week before the robbery, two teens accosted a shopper and stole his necklaces. They were arrested days later, according to a Concord police news release issued Thursday, and the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office charged the two teens with felonies. More details were not available because of their ages.
Police also responded to a robbery in May, when they said four men brandishing firearms used hammers to smash and rob a different jewelry kiosk before fleeing. A kiosk employee was also pepper-sprayed during that robbery.
