WARMINGTON: Jewelry store bandits strike again – and again
Witnesses described it sounding like gunshots going off one after another.
Boom, boom, boom, bang, bang, bang. And then the sound of glass shattering.
'There were no shots fired,' Peel Regional Police clarified in a statement posted on X. 'Callers heard the hammers hitting glass.'
Not at one jewelry store in the Erin Mills Town Centre in Mississauga but two.
It was 6:30 p.m. on a busy Thursday night in the popular mall when three young masked men stormed the second-floor and hit the Fine Gold jewelry store first, taking out hammers, smashing display cases and grabbing merchandise.
And then, a short distance away, they repeated the violence at Peoples Jewellers.
The crooks took off with an unknown amount of jewelry.
Police responded quickly to the wild scene and tried to calm down shocked merchants and shoppers alike.
'Multiple masked suspects fled in a vehicle.' Police said, adding there were 'no injuries.'
At least no external injuries. On the inside, these retail workers were shaken up.
'I don't understand why when young people commit an armed robbery like this are given special treatment by the court when they are caught,' one of the victimized managers said. 'Why are their names not printed and why don't they do jail time?'
Fair questions.
It's so ironic this incident occurred; at the very same time I filed my column on the Jan. 19 smash-and-grab robbery at the Charm jewelry store – located just steps away from the two shops targeted Thursday evening.
Police had just announced the arrests of two 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old in that case – two of whom were also charged with breaches of the release conditions from previous alleged crimes committed.
It is believed that those three accused were still in custody but the joke inside the mall was – as Premier Doug Ford alluded to when some youth tried to steal his Cadillac Escalade – they were probably already out.
'They know the game,' said another manager of one of the stores hit. 'They know if they are even caught, they are out the same day.'
Meanwhile, I went back over to the mall Friday to check on things and found both stores were closed for the day as they cleaned up the mess left behind.
The police investigation is still underway, so there will be more to say on this later.
WARMINGTON: Accused teenage jewelry store bandits can trick court but not the cops
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Trio accused of two Mississauga jewelry store heists in two days
5 suspects wanted after lastest smash-and-grab jewelry store robbery in Oshawa
For now, these bandits got away. But the teenage boys accused of the Jan. 19 heist also allegedly got away – until cops caught up with them.
It will no doubt only be a matter of time before this trio of crooks is caught as well. Even if it wasn't the same people as before, with the timing of it being on the same day as police announced the other arrests, could it be that a message was being sent?
Either way, a lot of people are asking, when are Ontario courts going to send a message to these thugs? When are they going to start naming young offenders who are violent and give them real jail time?
Until the justice system changes its approach, it will remain open season on Ontario businesses, people, cars and homes.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
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