Robbers looted $1 mn from US Indian jeweller in 1-minute

Robbers looted jewels costing about $1 million in a highly organised one-minute heist at an Indian store in New Jersey.

Four masked men dressed in black entered 9Lakha Jewellers in Woodbridge on Saturday evening, broke the showcases with sledgehammers, and took the jewels, according to police.

This was the latest in a series of lootings of Indian jewellers in New Jersey.

The store’s co-owner Sonu Chauhan described the incident to News 12 NJ: “They had big plastic bags with them. Along with the trays, they would start dumping into those bags. Within 30 or 45 seconds, they were done. The car was there, and they got into it."

Surveillance video from the store showed the robbers arriving in a silver-coloured car, rushing into the store, running back to the car seconds later, and driving off.

The store is located on a street with several Indian jewellery stores in an area of New Jersey that is home to a large diaspora community.

The store’s co-owners said other stores on the street were robbed in the past year.

Virani Jewellers on the same street was robbed with a similar tactic in June last year, and also in 2022.

Co-owner of 9Lakha, Sushmita Chauhan, told the TV outlet: "It would be very beneficial to see if the government or the town can give a little bit of insurance to the street”.

They should “put some preventative measures rather than just going and acting after something really bad happened”, she said.

Indian jewellery stores are frequent targets of robbers in New Jersey and elsewhere using smash-and-grab tactics.

Ruby's Jeweller in Perth Amboy was a victim in May last year, and Reema Jewellers in Jersey City earlier this year, and Popular London Jewel, also in Jersey City, last November, according to reports.