Police in Los Angeles said criminals attempted to tunnel through other businesses to reach a jewellery store in the Chatsworth neighbourhood.
The incident occurred at 2 am on 25 March. The thieves reportedly used a sledgehammer to break through six brick walls belonging to three other businesses to reach Denny Lesser Jewelry.
The business owner was in the store at the time of the attempted theft and told police that when one of the suspects was confronted, they fled.
One business owner told local media that it was a crime unlike any other she had encountered.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve had 12 break-ins, but never have I seen anything like this," Sarah Shafik told KTLA.
“Making a tunnel from store to store until they reach the jewellery store. That took a lot of time; it’s crazy."
She added: “They were stupid, really. Get a better job. If they were smart, they would have a job.”
The business owner, Denny Lesser, told police the burglary attempt was a ‘carbon copy’ of an incident in his store a decade earlier.
A Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) spokesperson told Fox News that a similar burglary, targeting a jewellery store in Downtown LA, occurred days earlier.
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