Reports of gunfire at NJ mall lead to jewelry smash-and-grab discovery

🚨Police rushed to a North Jersey mall after reports of shots fired Tuesday morning

🚨Officers found a smashed jewelry display and stolen merchandise instead

🚨 The robbery follows several high-value jewelry thefts across New Jersey

HACKENSACK — Reports of shots fired at a North Jersey mall turned out to be something completely different on Tuesday morning.

Hackensack Deputy Police Chief Gregory Zisa said officers and the regional SWAT team who responded to the Shops at Riverside determined that no shots had been fired. Instead, a jewelry display at Bloomingdale's had been smashed, and pieces of jewelry were stolen. The Daily Voice reported that the case involved a watch display.

A single suspect left the mall with an undisclosed amount of jewelry. Police told Independent Online News that the robber struck the case with a hammer five times. The mall reopened by afternoon.

Costly smash-and-grab robberies

The incident is the latest reported smash-and-grab robbery involving a New Jersey jewelry store in recent weeks.

Bayonne: $500,000 in jewelry was stolen from JJB Gold Jewelry by four masked individuals who smashed the door with a sledgehammer and took everything in less than a minute, according to News 12.

Woodbridge: Four masked men got away with nearly $1 million worth of jewelry in one minute at 9Lakha Jewelers on August 8.

Perth Amboy: Four people pulled up to SD Jewelry on April 8 and stuffed garbage bags with $1 million worth of jewelry. One of the owners reached through an open car window and grabbed a suspect's hoodie as the car backed up and sideswiped a parked SUV. The woman ultimately fell onto the street.

Report a correction 👈 | 👉 Contact our newsroom