Woodbridge jewelry store loses nearly $1M in latest smash-and-grab

💎4 masked men smashed their way into a Woodbridge jewelry store Saturday night

💎Police say the thieves took nearly $1 million in jewelry from 9Lakha Jewelers.

💎The burglary took less than a minute, according to police

WOODBRIDGE — Four masked men got away with nearly $1 million worth of jewels in one minute.

Woodbridge police say four men broke into 9Lakha Jewelers on Oak Tree Road in the Iselin section around 7:45 p.m. Saturday and used sledgehammers to smash the display cases.

Surveillance video posted by News 12 shows a tan SUV pull up to the store and the thieves running into the store with sledgehammers and plastic trash bags.

They returned to the SUV with full bags.

The owner, Sonu Chauhan, told News 12 that most of the store's inventory was taken.

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Another million-dollar jewelry heist in neighborhood

Chauhan told News 12 that there have been several similar robberies in the area targeting stores that sell traditional Indian jewelry.

Virani Jewelers, which is located across the street from 9Lakha Jewelers,  was robbed in June 2022 by a group of four men with sledgehammers who also made off with about a million dollars worth of jewels. Sixteen people were charged in 2023 as part of a string of East Coast jewelry store robberies.

The store was hit again in June 2025, but no arrests have been made in that case.

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