Four masked men broke into an Indian jewelry store, 9Lakha, on Oak Tree Road in New Jersey and looted valuables worth $1 million in under 1 minute. Surveillance video showed an SUV stopped in front of the store and four masked men ran inside. They smashed the display cases with sledgehammers and put the jewelry in their bags. Sonu Chauhan, owner of the one-year-old store, told local channels that they were done within 30 to 45 seconds.“They had big plastic bags with them. Along with the trays, they would start dumping into those bags. Within 30 or 45 seconds, they were done. The car was there, and they got into it,” Chauhan said.The incident took place on Saturday evening. Chauhan said the robbers took the entire inventory of the store.The store is located in an area dotted by Indian jewelry stores and hence an easy target by organized crime. Virani Jewellers on the same street was robbed with a similar tactic in June last year, and also in 2022.Co-owner of 9Lakha, Sushmita Chauhan, told News12 NJ: “It would be very beneficial to see if the government or the town can give a little bit of insurance to the street”. They should “put some preventative measures rather than just going and acting after something really bad happened”, she said.Similar such heists took place in other Indian jewelry stores too: Ruby’s Jeweller in Perth Amboy was robbed in May last year, and Reema Jewellers in Jersey City earlier this year, and Popular London Jewel, also in Jersey City, last November.
