Police arrest four accused of robbing Palm Desert mall jewelry store with sledgehammers
Two adults and two children suspected of using sledgehammers to rob a jewelry store at the mall in Palm Desert were arrested after fleeing, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department announced Wednesday.
Deputies arrested 25-year-old Cleopatra Jones, 21-year-old Mason Barron and the two juveniles Tuesday night near Monterey Avenue and Dinah Shore Drive, about six miles north of the mall. A sheriff's department press release says the suspects had driven away from the mall in a red sedan, but it was disabled after crashing into another vehicle. They got out of the car and ran before deputies arrested them.
The four had used the sledgehammers and other unspecified "glassbreaking tools" to shatter the display cases and rob a store inside The Shops at Palm Desert, the press release said without specifying what was taken. The robbery took place at about 5:15 p.m. at M. Ruiz Jewelers, where broken glass and sheriff's investigators could be seen a short time later.
The sheriff's department said Barron and Jones were booked into jail on suspicion of robbery while the juveniles, who were not identified because of their age, were booked into juvenile hall. Court records do not indicate that formal charges have been filed so far. Barron, who is from Hemet, and Jones, who is from Los Angeles, were being held on $60,000 bond, according to online jail records.
The sheriff's release said investigators are working to determine if the suspects were also involved in what it described as "similar incidents throughout Riverside and Orange Counties."
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Police: 4 people robbed Palm Desert mall jeweler with sledgehammers
