Staff at a jewelry store in Place D’Orléans mall have been left shaken after a daring daytime robbery saw thieves run off with a significant amount of gold and diamonds.
The entire scene was caught on camera, showing two alleged criminals enter the store shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday, hammering their way through display cases at Doucet Jewelry Store.
The crime left the two employees face-to-face with the alleged vandals, who described the event as scary, unsettling and loud.
While no staff were hurt during the robbery, it was a scary moment for store manager Katherine Janowicz, who was working when the store was robbed.
“Yeah. Loud. Very loud,” Janowicz said, recalling the events.
As she continues to clean the shards of glass left from the robbery under her feet, she reflects on the face-to-face interaction she had with one of the thieves’ moments ahead of the crime.
“A young man came really kind of suspicious. He wanted to see the most expensive gold chain I had,” she said.
Janowicz said she told the man to leave.
“As he was leaving, I turned and there was another young man with his back to us, completely dressed in black mask. I thought, ‘Okay, I did the right thing,'” she said.
But soon, the two returned.
“He just said, just show me anything. Then he jumped the counter, grabbed me and said, ‘Give me your keys,'” she said.
Janowicz then pushed a panic button before the man let her go, giving her time to get away. She and another employee ran into an office and locked the door. The thieves then began smashing the display cases as surrounding businesses shut their doors.
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“We waited until the smashing stopped. We could hear people out in the hall yelling at them and then we came out. It was a mess. It was very loud,” she said.
Staff say the entire event was over in just two minutes.
“Nobody’s hurt. That’s the main thing. We’re going to deal with everybody. We’re going to help everybody,” said Paul Lacombe, the area supervisor for Doucet.
He says while it’s too early to know the cost of the inventory lost, he says it’s “considerable” and that police are investigating.
“They came in and took fingerprints, pictures they were here quite a while,” Lacombe said.
While the event was disturbing, those who work at the mall say it remains safe.
“It’s very family oriented and very quiet, so it’s unfortunate,” said Diana Kirkwood, who works in the Place D’Orléans mall.
The focus now is on helping police with the investigation, repairing the damage and hopefully reopening in the coming days.
The Ottawa Police said in an email to CTV News the two unknown suspects fled the scene before police arrived and the OPS robbery unit is investigating.
The extensive cleanup continues at Doucet and Janowicz hopes to reopen as early as Wednesday.