On July 23 a trio of masked individuals robbed a pawnshop in Phoenix. Apparently the three men burst into the store at around 9:30 AM. This might be taken as a particularly brazen action.
For one the three masked men had not casually entered the store. Sometimes robbers will do so in order to initially appear as customers. Secondly the early hour is not a time that most people would expect a crime to be committed. Daylight hours generally make suspect identification easier. As a result, robbers usually wait until later to commit crimes.
Nevertheless, one might postulate that the robbers were looking for a time where few people would have been in the store. When the three robbers ran into the pawnshop they created quite a scene. One of the three suspects held the actual employees at gunpoint. The other two promptly cleaned out the display case in the store. Items taken in this manner could probably be easily exchanged into cash, and since they come from a pawnshop it may be more difficult to trace them than regular retail merchandise.
A suspect then demanded a necklace that one of the employees was wearing. There is no real report that the victims attempted to resist the robbery. Many stores train their employees to acquiesce to the demands of robbers in order to avoid a potentially violent crime that could escalate out of control.
They then made their way out of the store. Apparently the suspects took off eastbound from the SuperPawn at 3460 NW Grand Avenue. They were last scene driving a Buick from the late 1990s or early 2000s. Witnesses believe that that car was either silver or gold.
The case became recently relevant again because police offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who can help them find the individuals who robbed the store. While masks usually make it difficult to identify people, there are some surveillance photographs that Silent Witness has released in order to aid in identification. While this doesn't necessarily make it a great deal easier, it could prompt someone who is familiar with the suspects to identify them.
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