Stolen jewelry from Scottsdale boutique appears to be for sale online
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - A Scottsdale jewelry store of 40 years was burglarized. The stolen pieces total almost half a million dollars.
The owners of Lake View Jewelry Boutique, a father-son duo, don’t believe this to be your typical smash-and-grab, but a coordinated attack.
A now empty jewelry case used to be filled with one-of-a-kind jewels. But, now the glass is cracked, and the case is empty.
The family-owned business has been in the location for five years and says nothing like this has ever happened.
Scottsdale jewelry boutique has $250,000 worth of items stolen in burglary
A jewelry heist in Scottsdale results in $250,000 worth of hand-crafted items stolen. But the father-son duo that owns the boutique is hoping to track down the burglar.
"I just want my stuff back. I want my father to sleep at night and enjoy his hard-working pieces," Moisei said.
On May 1, just before 3 a.m., the state-of-the-art security system was triggered with eight cameras, motion detectors, and lasers. The criminal carried out the whole attack in less than a minute.
The 40-year jeweler, Boras, etches each piece with his trademark.
"Our pieces have special markings on them. Today, tomorrow, next year, they'll get caught," Moisei said.
Since the burglary, the family has been alerting pawn shops and other jewelers of the theft. The jeweler believes he's seeing his items pop up on third-party apps and websites.
"He right away sent it to me like, 'Hey, this piece is selling something that cost us $3,800 years ago to manufacture and is selling it for $20," Moisei said.
An insult to hand-crafted items.
"It's a spit in our faces. Something that we put our blood, sweat and tears into, and they’re selling it like a bag of chips," Moisei said.
Time stamps on security footage show the jewelry store was burglarized at 2:52 a.m. Less than three minutes after Moisei had just gotten home.
They don't believe this was a coincidence.
"I think I was followed, yes," Moisei said.
Moise says this has taken 20 years off his dad’s life. The two own several businesses in the area, and it was one of the few times they left the items out overnight.
FOX 10 reached out to OfferUp about postings that appear to be selling the stolen items, and the company said, in part, "On the proactive side, we have a team of investigators who look for bad items and users on the platform and remove them while working with law enforcement to provide information and collaboration to resolve criminal activity. We also have a dedicated team of trust and safety analysts who use data to identify patterns of bad activity and to automatically flag suspicious postings."
OfferUp also partners with law enforcement and leads online for retail theft. It also has a verification system called TruYou to know who you're buying from.