Video catches family participating in $20,000 jewelry robbery

NORCROSS, Ga. — Norcross police now believe a group of adults and a child seen on surveillance video robbing a jewelry store is actually a family of career criminals.

The Legacy Jewels store inside Global Mall on Jimmy Carter Boulevard was robbed Nov. 19. The thieves were so smooth in their heist that store workers didn't even realize $20,000 worth of jewels was missing until they went to close the store hours later.

The surveillance video, according to police, shows a man and young boy about 7 or 8 years old walking into the store. The pair talk to a clerk about some items but police believe it was simply a distraction for two women who were standing nearby.

Police say one woman leaned over the counter and opened a sliding door behind the counter. She then grabbed a tray full of jewelry and handed it to an accomplice, who stuffed it inside her dress. A police report shows the gold and silver necklaces and earrings were worth $20,000.

"It's just crazy how easily she could do that," said mall worker Sarah Copeland. "I've worked here for almost three years now and I've never seen anything like this happen."

"They are pretty brazen. They knew there were cameras there but they didn't care," said Norcross Police Detective Arelis Rivera.

Also disturbing to the detective is that the video appears to show the small boy shoplifting an item during the visit.

"It's a family affair." Rivera said.

"That's so crazy that somebody would, I mean, you have to teach a kid to do something like that," Copeland said after viewing the video.

Norcross police said they had reports of the family regularly panhandling outside stores at a nearby strip mall, but since that November jewelry heist, they haven't been seen.

WSBTV