‘I hope you burn in hell,’ Ashland jewelry store owner says to burglar

ASHLAND, VA (WWBT) - A man decided to make his own way into an Ashland jewelry store, and the whole thing was captured on surveillance video.

The burglar first broke into the back door of a hair salon next door to Jewelry and Coin Exchange, which did not have an alarm system.

It took about a half an hour for the burglar to get in, but he was undeterred. He then went into a bathroom in the hair salon and broke through the wall it shares with the jewelry store.

That tripped an alarm, but the burglar used some kind of tool, possibly a hammer, to smash several cases and grabbed some high-dollar items before leaving.

“He was in my store only three minutes,” Kemal Ogru, who owns Jewelry and Coin Exchange, said.

Ogru has watched the surveillance video of the Dec. 4 burglary hundreds of times.

“I mean, still when I think about it I’m really pissed," Ogru said. “I mean, this was a professional job."

Ogru said the items amounted to a little over $50,000, and including several different types of jewelry and precious metals.

“Like diamond jewelry, diamond earrings, tennis bracelets, gold jewelry like chains bracelets," Ogru said. " I had gold coins, silver coins.”

Making matters worse, Ogru says he did not have insurance for his store because it was too expensive.

“This is my lifetime investment - it’s gone," Ogru said. "I worked day and night. Of course I’m a little older now, but I will hustle again. I will work again.”

Ogru wants police to catch the man who did this and he has a simple message for him.

“I hope you burn in hell," Ogru said. "That’s what I wanna say: I hope you burn in hell.”

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