Glendale jewelry store robbed: Thieves use blowtorches to open multiple safes

Multi-million-dollar jewelry heist in Glendale

Thieves broke in through the roof of Bidrussian Jewelry in Glendale to steal millions of dollars worth of jewels.

GLENDALE, Calif. - Thieves broke into a family jewelry store in Glendale earlier this week, stealing millions of dollars worth of jewelry. It's the second reported jewelry heist this week alone.

What we know:

The break-in happened at Bidrussian Jewelry in Glendale in the early morning hours of Tuesday, May 27.

Once the suspects got in, they disabled the security cameras, then broke into three separate safes, using blowtorches to open at least two of them. After robbing the safes, the thieves ransacked the store.

The family estimates their losses in the millions of dollars.

Bidrussian Jewelry has been a family-run business in Glendale for more than 20 years. Manail Bidrussian took the business over from his father.

What they're saying:

Bidrussian says the business has a robust security system, but the thieves broke in through the one place where the building wasn't as secure.

"It's the ceiling where they're getting us from," said Bidrussian. "I have [the business] fortified in the front, the side walls, motion detectors everywhere, but I didn't have any alarms or cameras on the roof. On the roof, [that] would have probably captured all of this before they even had a chance to start cutting."

Dig deeper:

The Bidrussians aren't the only family that has been targeted this week. Early Monday morning, thieves stole millions of dollars of jewels from a Simi Valley jewelry store by slithering through the coffee shop next door, then cut through eight inches of concrete and the safe.