Florida thieves steal $100,000 worth of luxury watches at a brazen mall: video

A brazen trio of thieves robbed a jewelry store at a Florida mall on Tuesday, smashing hammers into display cases and making off with $100,000 worth of luxury watches, according to police.

Video of the incident at 1:30 p.m. shows an employee scurrying away while the masked suspects bang themselves into glass cases with hammers, according to a Facebook post from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials said the smash-and-grabbers were targeting high-end watches at the Diamond Galleria store in the Citrus Park mall.

According to police, the thieves got through a staff entrance before raiding the jewelry store.

After the robbery, the crew encountered a waiting Nissan Murano SUV getaway truck.

The robbers remain at large, MPs said.

Smash-and-grab crimes have risen sharply in recent years, with thieves targeting posh shopping districts across the country and forcing some retailers to only let in customers who ring a bell.

In a March letter to Congress, the National Federation of Retailers said theft has exploded during the pandemic and continues to rise.

Retailers lost $700,000 per $1 billion in sales as of 2020 — an increase of more than 50% over five years, the organization says.