Industry saw smash-and-grab ‘explosion’ in 2014

While overall jewelry crime continued to trend downward in 2014, there was a spike in the number of smash-and-grab robberies due primarily to two large gangs.

Michelle Graff michelle.graff@nationaljeweler.com

New York-- While overall jewelry crime continued to trend downward in 2014, there was a spike in the number of smash-and-grab robberies due primarily to two large gangs, the Jewelers’ Security Alliance said.

According to the JSA’s annual report, released Thursday, the report shows that the number of smash-and-grab robberies reported to the JSA rose 77 percent in 2014, from 62 to 110.

JSA President John J. Kennedy said he doesn’t believe the industry has ever seen so many smash-and-grabs in a single year. “This is really an explosion,” he said.

Many the work of two large and likely unrelated gangs, one based in Detroit and the other in California, these crimes continued through the first two months of the year but have slowed recently, due in part to the indictment of 17 individuals alleged to be part of the Detroit smash-and-grab ring, Kennedy said.

He said the two gangs perpetrating these crimes are huge--there are believed to be as many as 80 individuals involved in the Detroit area, including the 17 just indicted--and have a couple of experienced ringleaders who use money to lure non-experienced criminals in to do one or two jobs.

The robberies, where the perpetrators take heavy-weight hammers to display cases then grab the merchandise, targeted primarily cases of loose diamonds and high-end watches, pushing the total dollars losses for 2014 to $77.8 million, a 17 percent increase over the prior year.

They also plagued more mall jewelers than any other type of retailers in 2014, the JSA’s report shows. Of the 110 smash-and-grab robberies reported to the JSA in 2014, nearly half, 49, happened in mall jewelry stores.

A total of 26 happened in standalone stores, 13 in stores located in strip shopping centers, 12 in downtown stores, 6 in department stores and one in a jewelry store located in a hotel. (The location of three of the 110 was unknown.)

Kennedy said while it might seem counter-intuitive to go to a crowded mall to perpetrate such a visible crime, the robbers case the mall beforehand, perhaps selecting a store that’s close to an exit, and bank on being able to blend into the mall traffic after leaving the jewelry store. In addition, fewer mall stores have buzzers on their doors, making them easier targets.

To guard against smash-and-grabs, Kennedy said jewelers need to have buzzers on the door, which

Banner will be right here …

can be a deterrent, and laminated glass in sturdy display cases. It also helps to have high-quality functioning cameras, to watch for people casing the store and to share information with other jewelers about anyone deemed suspicious.

“We have seen that if they can’t get (to the jewelry by) smashing the showcase, then they leave,” Kennedy said, adding that while these types of showcases might be expensive, they are worth it for stores carrying high-end merchandise.

While smash-and-grab robberies increased in 2014, industry crime was down overall.

The total number of crimes reported to the JSA decreased from 1,414 in 2013 to 1,381 in 2014, a 2 percent decline.

As mentioned, dollar losses increased year-over-year because of the smash-and-grab thefts of diamonds and high-end watches, but have been steadily dropping for years along with overall crime. Dollar losses are down 43 percent over the last 10 years when adjusted for inflation.

Other noteworthy statistics from the report include the following.

--The number of homicides of jewelers fell from five in 2013 to three in 2014.
-- There were two home invasions of retail jewelers, compared with three in 2013. After spiking in recent years, “tiger kidnappings,” incidences where jewelers are cased, then followed and attacked away from their store, have subsided in the past couple years.
--Multi-branch firms, retail chains and department stores experienced the lion’s share of thefts (grab-and-run, distraction thefts, switches, etc.) at 60 percent while independent jewelers had more robberies (64 percent) and burglaries (78 percent).
--Rooftop burglaries were up 6 percent year-over-year, with Florida the most active state for this crime. Three-minute burglaries, which are named for the amount of time they take to commit, were down 33 percent. The JSA noted that both of these types of crime occur when jewelry is left out in showcases overnight.

A PDF of the JSA’s entire 2014 report is available via JewelersSecurity.org.

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.