Five suspects were arrested Wednesday after a brazen daytime robbery of a Sunnyvale jewelry store involving nearly two dozen suspects and a police chase, authorities said.
The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety (DPS) said the robbery happened Wednesday afternoon just before 1:30 p.m. at PNG Jewelers in the Hacienda Shopping Center on the 700 block of E. El Camino Real. About 20 suspects used hammers and other tools to break jewelry displays and steal the merchandise. They fled in multiple vehicles before officers arrived, DPS said.
Officers located two suspicious vehicles and attempted to pull them over, but both vehicles fled, leading to two separate pursuits on northbound US Highway 101, according to authorities. One pursuit ended after officers lost sight of the vehicle, while during the pursuit of the second vehicle, the suspects threw some of the stolen jewelry out the window, DPS said.
The pursuit of the second vehicle ended when officers lost sight of it, but the vehicle was found abandoned a short time later on Highway 101 near Whipple Avenue in Redwood City. Five suspects from the vehicle ran across the highway and into a nearby industrial area, where four of them were arrested near Industrial Road and Brittan Avenue in San Carlos, DPS said.
Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety
The fifth suspect was found nearby and arrested after being stopped by a police K-9 as he tried to escape, DPS said.
The suspects were identified as Tonga Latu, Tavake Esafe, Ofa Ahomana, Kilifi Leaaetoa and Afuhia Lavakeiaho. Their ages and places of residence were not provided. The five were booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on charges of armed robbery, vehicular evasion, resisting arrest, burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime, vandalism, possession of burglary tools and outstanding warrants for their arrest.
Some of the stolen jewelry has been recovered; the total value of the stolen jewelry was not immediately known. No one was injured during the robbery and police chase.
Other law enforcement agencies involved included the California Highway Patrol, Palo Alto Police Department, Belmont Police Department, South San Francisco Police Department and the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.
Sunnyvale DPS investigators were trying to determine if the robbery is related to another Sunnyvale jewelry store robbery that occurred in May involving multiple suspects.
