On January 16, 2025, a brazen robbery took place at Griffin Jewellery in The Pen Centre, St. Catharines
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. The incident occurred just after 1 p.m., when five masked suspects stormed into the store wielding a sledgehammer
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. They smashed several display cases and swiftly filled their bags with jewelry before making a dramatic escape
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The entire scene was captured on video from a nearby food court, showing the suspects running down the corridor with their loot
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. In a surprising turn of events, a brave mall patron threw a chair at the robbers, while others attempted to intervene
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. Unfortunately, two witnesses were sprayed with an irritant similar to pepper spray, and another person collided with a column while chasing the culprits, resulting in minor injuries
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The suspects were described as follows:
Suspect 1: White hooded sweatshirt, black pants, and black shoes
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Suspect 2: Black hooded sweatshirt with white lettering, forest green pants, white shoes, and blue face mask
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Suspect 3: Black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, black shoes, black duffel bag, and blue face mask
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Suspect 4: Black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, white shoes, black duffel bag, and white face mask
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Suspect 5: Black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, white shoes, and a green bag
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The suspects fled the scene in a silver Honda CR-V with an Ontario license plate
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. However, the plate was later found to be registered to a different vehicle
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. The Pen Centre was evacuated and closed for the rest of the day as police conducted their investigation
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This robbery is part of a series of similar incidents in Southern Ontario over the past few months, with many jewelry store robberies occurring in broad daylight and busy shopping areas
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. The most recent one before this was at Mapleview Mall in Burlington on January 4, 2025
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Detectives are urging anyone with information or video footage to come forward and contact them
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. The public is also encouraged to provide anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers of Niagara
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For more details, you can watch the news coverage here.
What do you think about this incident?
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