VIDEO: Thieves record themselves stealing $2 million in jewelry, leading to conviction

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (KCAL/KCBS/CNN Newsource/WKRC) – A group of thieves recorded themselves stealing and counting $2 million in jewelry, despite taking precautions to spray paint the building’s security cameras.

Prosecutors were able to easily secure a conviction against four suspects who were accused of drilling through the wall of 5-Star Jewelry and Repair from the neighboring coffee shop after they found a series of videos the suspects recorded depicting the crime in action.

One of the videos shows a suspect flash a peace sign at the camera as the cameraman, another suspect, scans the area, showing the amount of jewelry they had stolen while they were still in the act of looting more. The large hole the thieves drilled was also shown in the video. A second clip shows the group attempting to break open a safe by hammering away at it with a crowbar.

A group of thieves recorded themselves stealing and counting $2 million in jewelry, despite taking precautions to spray paint the building’s security cameras. (KCAL, KCBS, Ventura County District Attorney, Ted Mackel via CNN Newsource)

Two more videos were taken after the suspects arrived home with their ill-gotten haul, showing the group counting and sorting what turned out to be roughly $2 million worth of new and heirloom jewelry.

All four suspects seen in the videos were convicted on various charges after prosecutors obtained the self-incriminating videos.

A group of thieves recorded themselves stealing and counting $2 million in jewelry, despite taking precautions to spray paint the building’s security cameras. (Ventura County District Attorney via CNN Newsource)

Investigators were able to put together a more complete picture of the heist by combining the suspects’ videos with security camera video from the coffee shop that showed a suspect shimmying on the ground to avoid motion detectors. The suspect also spray painted security cameras in an apparent attempt to prevent anyone from watching the heist take place, but that proved to be a moot point.

“The worst part about the loss of property that we had was the customers that we built up over that same period trust us with their heirloom jewelry to repair and unfortunately, some of that jewelry, all of that jewelry was stolen,” said Jonathan Youssef from 5-Star Jewelry and Repair. The store said despite the convictions, it was unable to recover any of the stolen jewelry.