$1.3 Million Stolen In Major Illinois Jewelry Store Heist

Imagine walking into work and realizing nearly everything is gone—like basically all your products.  That's exactly what happened to a business owner in Illinois.

This wasn't a smash-n-dash.  No, these thieves took their time and shut off the internet before entering the business.  After a carefully planned overnight heist to Rick Kleinvehn Diamond Brokers in South Barrington, Illinois on May 9th-10th, thieves made their way into a store safe and stole $1.3M.

According to the store owner, they took roughly 1,000 pieces of jewelry, which is basically the entire store.

"They used a wet saw, and the interior where the safe was became all slushy, muddy, just kind of a goo on the floor from them cutting for hours and hours through that steel," Kleinvehn told ABC News. "They had buckets, and they were filling buckets and pouring it on the hot metal." [abcnews]

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The owner believes there had to be someone who told them exactly where the safe was because it wasn't public knowledge.

Related: Bags of Cash Fly Off Brinks Truck in Illinois, It Turned Into a Free-for-All

At this time, the owner and investigators do not have any person of interest but currently working to solve the crime.  This isn't the first time this kind of heist has happened in the last few months either.  Just a few weeks after this, a similar burglary happened in California to a jewelry and repair shop.  The thieves stole $2M in cash and jewelry.

Could these two be connected?  Maybe.  There is no indication they are related, according to police.  Any information or tips about this heist can be sent to South Barrington Police.