RALEIGH -- Three armed men, their faces covered by ski masks, walked into the Bailey's Fine Jewelry at Cameron Village shortly after it opened Friday morning, smashed a display case and left in moments with an undisclosed haul of diamonds.
"We were all trying to run for cover because they had guns," said the woman who called 911 to report what had just happened.
The store at 415 Daniels St. opens at 10 a.m., and police received the call shortly after that, Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue said. No one was hurt.
The three men climbed into a silver Hyundai driven by a fourth man, the caller said, and the car turned right and went the few hundred feet toward Daniels Street.
Officers found the car a short time later in a parking lot at the YMCA on Hillsborough Street. A witness there told police four men from the car got into a dark van and left, Sughrue said.
He said the Hyundai had been stolen from Bobby Murray Chevrolet, which corresponded with the 911 caller's report that there was no license plate on the back of the vehicle.
The robbers used a rubber mallet to smash display cases, then scooped up diamonds, the 911 caller said.
"They busted our cases and took a whole bunch of diamonds - I mean big diamonds," she said in the call. "We're all scared to death."
Of the three men that entered the store, one reportedly was taller than the other two. All had guns, the caller says in the 911 recording released Friday afternoon.
Police said they did not have physical descriptions of the suspects, and they have not detailed what the men took from the store or set a value for it.
Employees at neighboring stores said they heard and saw nothing during the heist.
Globetrotters luggage and gifts, to the right of Bailey's, had its front door open at the time, but employees said they heard nothing unusual. To the left of Bailey's, Noodles & Co. doesn't open until 11 a.m.
Bailey's closed for a while Friday, a sign in its window saying it was closed for inventory. It opened for business in the afternoon, however, and people were going in and out about 4:30 p.m. The only sign of the robbery was a security guard outside who asked media representatives to stay out of the store.
Police ask anyone with information about the robbery to call Raleigh Crime Stoppers at 919-834-4357.
