LA burglars tunneled through businesses to reach jewelry store: ‘Must have taken a lot of work’

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Los Angeles burglars are using sledgehammers to tunnel their way into local businesses.

Early Monday morning, suspects burrowed through three businesses and six walls in a strip mall to make their way into Denny Lesser Jewelers in Chatsworth, according to Los Angeles police and Denny Lesser himself.

“I heard a loud noise in the back,” Lesser, who went into his store that he has owned for 42 years around 1:30 a.m. to do some repair work, told Fox News Digital.

He went to see what the commotion was and came face-to-face with a suspect wearing a dark hoodie, a mask and gloves sledgehammering through a wall to force his way into Lesser’s store. 

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Burglars tunneled through businesses in the Chatsworth area of LA on Monday to get into Denny Lesser Jewelry. (FOX 11 Los Angeles)

“It wasn’t frightening for me. I don’t know why,” Lesser said. “I looked at him and yelled [an expletive]. I said, ‘Get the hell out of here,’ and I think that scared him.”

The suspect Lesser made eye contact with went back through the wall and began talking to another person in a language that was not English, Lesser said. The jewelry store owner then went to push an emergency button that contacted the police, who arrived on the scene quickly. He described the suspect he saw as “slight,” standing only 5 feet, 5 inches tall or 5 feet, 7 inches tall.

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Burglary suspects targeting an LA jewelry store on Monday entered a strip mall by sledgehammering through a wall on the outside of the building. (FOX 11 Los Angeles/Google Maps)

The damage to the three businesses the suspects tunneled through to get to Lesser’s store was extensive, but he said he feels “blessed” that no one was hurt and nothing of significant value was stolen from any of the impacted stores.

“Police said it must have taken them a lot of work,” Lesser said of the burglars’ attempt to get to his store, adding that they left behind a sledgehammer and what appeared to be a crowbar.

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LAPD officers said it “must have taken a lot of work” for burglars to sledgehammer their way through multiple businesses to get to Denny Lesser’s jewelry store, Lesser said. (FOX 11 Los Angeles)

Lesser added that the burglary attempt was a “carbon copy” of an incident that occurred at his store eight or 10 years ago, when suspects tunneled through walls in an attempt to get to his store.

A Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) spokesperson confirmed the incident to Fox News Digital and a similar burglary that occurred days earlier in Downtown Los Angeles at Gilded Jewelry, a store in Fashion Alley.

“Unfortunately one of our [s]tores got broke into this morning [at 3 a.m.]. If anyone recognizes any of these individuals please contact us,” the store said in an Instagram post with pictures and videos of police responding to the break-in. “If you have any pending orders they will be shipped tomorrow.”

A similar sledgehammer burglary occurred at a jewelry store in Downtown LA on March 20. (Google Maps)

Burglars also used sledgehammers to force their way into that store on March 20, but security cameras captured images of the suspects, FOX 11 reported, adding that investigators have not said whether the two incidents are related.

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Other stores in the area told FOX 11 that thieves have tried to break into their stores with similar methods.

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“I feel violated, but I also feel blessed that nobody got hurt. And that’s the way I feel,” Rebecca Rotter of Cosmetic Creations Salon told the outlet. “And I’m wishing that some of these people would get prosecuted because the crime is out of control, and I’m not comfortable with that at all.”

In March of last year, burglars stole as much as $5 million in merchandise from a Beverly Hills jewelry store after forcing entry into the store with sledgehammers during the day. At least five suspects used sledgehammers to break the store’s windows on a Tuesday afternoon.

Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.