A band of veiled thieves made out with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of designer eyeglasses from a Kearny Mesa optometry shop Wednesday morning.
The office manager at New Optix Optometry on Convoy Street thinks the group of four men cased her shop in the days before they broke entry in the dead of night and made away with $30,000 to $50,000 worth of eyewear.
“I feel like they cased our office previously, maybe a couple of days before they came in, and knew what they wanted,” manager Janina Viloria said.
Viloria says the four men, in face masks and sweats, smashed through a storefront window with a sledgehammer at around 3:15 a.m. and took several Gucci, Tom Ford, Dolce and Gabbana, Tory Burch and Kate Spade frames.
The cheapest of the stolen glasses were valued at around $250, but Viloria said many of the high-end pairs from Tom Ford and Gucci carry tags upward of $400.
Every move the thieves made were picked up by the shop’s arsenal of security cameras, but the face masks and dim light are making it very difficult for investigators trying to track the shady quartet. According to the store’s surveillance system, the men were in and out in about 4 minutes.
The cameras were put in place due to safety concerns that arose after pickpockets and shoplifting incidents occurred in the store, but Viloria said the business has never been targeted quite like this.
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Now, employees are scanning eBay and Craigslist and other online resale marketplaces looking for people profiting off of the stolen property.
Viloria said a more concise loss estimate will come when an inventory check is completed, but for now estimates the loss in property between $30,000 and $50,000.
