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Meza's Jewelry suffers $1.5M in losses after thieves break into family-owned business

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Published  June 30, 2025 10:26pm PDT
El Monte
FOX 11
Family out $1.5M after thieves targeted business

Family out $1.5M after thieves targeted business

A family tell FOX 11 they are out $1.5 million after thieves broke into their business, Meza's Jewelry.

The Brief

    • The Meza family's jewelry store in El Monte was ransacked in a break-in, losing over half their inventory and their surveillance system, with no insurance to cover the $1.5 million loss.
    • This theft is part of a trend of professional thieves targeting jewelry stores across Los Angeles County, including locations in Los Angeles, Encino, Glendale, and El Monte.
    • The Meza family previously faced a smash-and-grab attempt in 2023, but this time, no one was there to intervene.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - A family-owned jewelry store in El Monte is reeling after discovering a brazen break-in that left their shop ransacked and more than half of their inventory gone.

The Meza family says they made the heartbreaking discovery Sunday morning when they opened their store at the El Monte Valley Mall on Main Street. Thieves had broken in through the roof overnight, leaving the business in disarray. "The safe boxes were open," said Israel Meza. "And that's when I screamed to my brother that everything was gone." Video shows the aftermath: a massive hole ripped into the side of the store's safe, with nothing left inside. "My dad, he's upset, he's sad," Israel added. "He's the one that built everything, just for it to be gone. It sucks for him."

The suspects didn't just take jewelry—they also took the store's surveillance system. "They took the cameras and the DVR too," Israel said. The Meza family estimates the loss at $1.5 million. To make matters worse, they had no insurance to cover the damage. "We just took a loss of all our jewelry that we worked hard for," Israel said.

This heist is part of a disturbing trend. Law enforcement sources confirm that a ring of professional thieves has been targeting jewelry stores across Los Angeles County in recent months—hitting locations in Los Angeles, Encino, Glendale, and now El Monte. In Glendale, another store owner described the damage left behind. "This is my safe," said Manail Bidrussian of Bidrussian Jewelry. "They tore it from the side. That's safe number two—they blow-torched it. Safe number three—they torched that one too, on the reverse side." In each case, thieves have managed to bypass security systems and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise, often with no suspects immediately identified.

For the Meza family, this isn't the first time. In 2023, a suspect attempted a smash-and-grab at Meza's Jewelry during business hours, using bear spray on employees. That time, the staff fought back. This time, no one was there to intervene. "It sucks," Israel said. "The fact that we lost everything we worked hard for."

El MonteCrime and Public Safety