Jewelry stolen in Pico Rivera smash-and-grab robbery

PICO RIVERA -- A group of robbers made off with about $15,000 worth of jewelry Thursday after a smash-and-grab robbery at the Pico Rivera Indoor Swap Meet, authorities said.
The crime was reported about 6:15 p.m. at the swap meet, 7860 Paramount Boulevard, Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Robert Smith said.
Officials described the robbers as 5-7 black men between 20 and 25 years old, wearing dark clothing and hooded sweat shirts.
They approached a jewelry store, located near the entrance of the swap meet, Smith said.
Some of the men acted as lookouts while the others smashed open display cases with blunt objects and helped themselves to jewelry, primarily gold rings, the lieutenant said.
The robbers then got into two sedans, Smith said, and were last fleeing south on Paramount Boulevard.
He added that detectives were looking into the possibility that the crime is connected to a series of similar smash-and-grab jewelry store robberies carried out throughout Southern California in recent months.
The suspects arrested so far in connection with the ongoing smash-and-grab jewelry robbery trend have all been members of the same Los Angeles street gang.
Officials declined to release further details Thursday as they continued their investigation.