Thieves Use Pickup Truck, Backhoe in Jewelry Store Burglary During Storm: Police

A group of brazen burglars used a pickup truck, backhoe and chain to break into a New Jersey jewelry store and took off with more than $250,000 worth of valuables, and the business believes this week's storm may have provided a perfect cover for the crime.  

The thieves were in and out of The Jewelry Store on Route 4 in Paramus within five minutes early Friday morning, police say. 

The suspects apparently backed the pickup truck through the double doors, and then used a backhoe and a chain to drag out a safe, according to the store's security director, Robert Corella.

The burglars left the backhoe and pickup truck at the scene. 

The extreme version of the smash-and-grab isn't new: police are looking into whether the same thieves are behind two other similar burglaries, including one last month which also took place during a storm.

That time, the thieves used a pickup truck to break down the entire front of a Newark electronics store before making off with iPads, cell phones and TVs. 

Corella, who's also a police sergeant for another town, believes this could be the new wave of burglaries.

"It blends in because at that time all the landscapers are out preparing their businesses, shoveling and plowing," he said. "If cars are driving by and they see something, naturally they think it's people shoveling or plowing." 
 

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