SAN CARLOS, Calif. (KRON) – Investigators with San Mateo Sheriff’s Office are trying to determine if a jewelry store break-in is connected to the wave of criminal activity that followed Sunday’s protests here in the Bay Area.

Surveillance video shows multiple people breaking into Geoffrey’s Diamond’s & Goldsmith Jewelry Store in San Carlos.

“It looked like it was a group of women, roughly, um, yeah,” Jillian Rebo said. 

The security alarm was activated around 8:30 p.m. Sunday night. 

The store manager says there was no jewelry in the display cases at the time of the break-in but she says the burglars may have found merchandise behind the counter.

“We secure some stuff underneath here and that’s why we saw them go back behind. Basically when they smashed this they pushed the drawer opened and started pounding. Gosh it had to have been no more than 10-seconds,” Rebo said. 

A few blocks away precautions are being taken, covering these glass windows with plywood outside of a gun store on El Camino Real. 

The extra layer of security follows an incident involving a vehicle being used to ram the security gate during a burglary Sunday night at Richardson Tactical Gun Store over in Hayward. 

Hayward police say it was one of multiple calls for service that came in during the looting and vandalism spree all over the Bay Area following George Floyd protests. 

This long time customer of Geoffrey’s says there is a difference between protestors and opportunists looking to commit crime.

“To protest and to speak out, I think that is an important right that we have and that we should exercise peacefully and I think there is a second group that rides on the coattails of that and uses that as an opportunity to create chaos,” Jeanne Palermo said. 

“It sucks! They’re hitting us when we are already down. We have been closed and we’re just trying to survive this,” Rebo said. 

Officials at the San Mateo Sheriff’s Office say it is too early in the investigation to tell if there is any connection to the other looting incidents that occurred during other protests in the Bay Area.

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