Pickup smashes through doors, safe yanked out in daring Paramus jewelry center burglary

A burglary crew slammed a pickup truck through the doors of The Jewelry Center on Route 4 in Paramus, used a cable to drag a safe filled with $250,000 worth of gems to the parking lot, then loaded it into a getaway car with a backhoe, authorities said this afternoon.

Photo Credit: *Cliffview Pilot File Photo*

Jerry DeMarco

02/14/2014 11:47 p.m.

Possibly relying on the cover of the overnight snowfall, the thieves “backed a Ford F350 pickup truck through the glass doors, then attached a steel cable to the truck and a safe that had been located near the doors” just before 6 a.m., Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said.

They were quick, too. By the time police responded to a burglar alarm, they were gone, the chief said.

They left behind the pickup — reported stolen earlier in Essex County — and the backhoe, which was reported stolen from a Route 17 construction site in Paramus.

Police are hoping the drivers of any number of plows working in the area might have seen something of use in their investigation.

CALL: (201) 262-3400 ext. 553

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