Houston Jewelry's burglar smashes way into cases, but cuts himself and leaves behind his blood
The heist that was caught on camera took place late Wednesday at the store's Westheimer and Gessner location.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Workers at Houston Jewelry, a landmark jeweler along Westheimer Road near Gessner in the city's Mid-West, were forced to pick up the pieces of smashed-in display cases on Thursday.
The mess, which also included someone's dried-up blood, was the responsibility of a smash-and-grab burglar, who, as owner Rex Solomon described, had significant athletic skill when he threw a hammer through a plate glass window late Wednesday night.
"He launched himself over the showcase. He looked like the pummel horse," Solomon told Eyewitness News hours after the heist.
In surveillance video obtained by ABC13, the intruder is seen smashing display cases and scooping up everything he could into a plastic bin, all within four minutes.
There were little clues left behind, except the blood - a lot of it. Solomon said the burglar appeared to have cut himself.
In a twist, Solomon claims what was stolen, including some silver and fashion watches, isn't worth very much.
"The scrap value of that is probably less than what it cost him to buy the sledgehammer and crowbar and buckets," Solomon said. "Assuming that he did buy them."
Despite that, though, he said he's finding little consolation with the less-than-valuable take of the crime. He wasn't thrilled with how long it took police to arrive, and he added that a detective hadn't been assigned to his case, as of Thursday night.
"I'm certain he will serve no time, no time at all, with judges putting $2 bail on kidnapping," Solomon said. "We, as a society, need to determine what's important. It seems that public safety is a major issue."
Interestingly, Solomon said it appears crime has actually gone down a bit in the neighborhood, and that's supported by data from the ABC13 Neighborhood Safety Tracker, which shows a slight decline in burglaries from a year ago.
