'They're definitely worried:' Jewelry store robberies are on the rise in the GTHA

In this combination photo, suspects are seen in the left image during a jewelry store robbery in Richmond Hill on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. In the right image, a group of suspects are seen in a video taken during a robbery at a jewelry store at a Markham mall on Dec. 4, 2024. (Supplied)

The GTHA has seen a spike in the number of jewelry store robberies in recent months with the Toronto Police Service reporting nearly double the number of incidents this year over last.

One industry expert says jewelry store owners in the region are expressing concerns about the alarming trend as they worry about the future of their businesses.

“The people I have talked to… they’re definitely worried about what’s occurring and rightfully fearful about what’s going to happen in the future with their stores,” Scott Hayes, of Jewellers Vigilance Canada (CJA), told CP24.com on Friday.

Hayes said as part of the CJA’s work, they regularly interact with jewellers and law enforcement agencies to help with crime prevention strategies.

“I’ve had conversations with local police services who have told me that they’re statistically seeing a rise in jewelry store robberies across the GTA,” Hayes said.

The Toronto Police Service told CP24 that so far in 2024, there have been 43 jewelry store robberies reported to police, compared to just 21 last year.

While York Regional Police could not provide specific statistics, they confirmed that there has been a rise in jewelry store robberies in the region year-over-year.

Earlier this week, police in York Region said upwards of 12 suspects are believed to be involved in a recent jewelry store robbery at a mall in Markham. Four of the six suspects arrested in the incident were teens, police said.

In an incident reported by Hamilton police on Thursday, five suspects allegedly backed a vehicle into the front window of a jewelry store during a robbery in Ancaster, Ont.

“You’re seeing the amount of people involved in an individual incident going up,” Hayes said, adding that this increases the likelihood of one of the suspects quickly grabbing something of high value.

He said the ease of offloading the stolen items makes jewelry stores an attractive target.

“These things are what we like to call near-cash instruments. Gold, jewels, and stuff. The value is the value. It doesn’t fluctuate a lot depending on where you sell it, whereas a Honda Civic is a different price in the GTA than it is in Gimli, Manitoba,” Hayes said.

“Gold, silver, and jewels, the price is very static and it can be easily transferred and moved from one person to another, which is why I think they go for it because you can get a lot of value from a very short incident.”

He said products at jewelry stores are also not tracked the same way as other high value goods.

“It’s not like there’s serial numbers on gold bracelets or every diamond or (piece of) jewelry that you pick up,” he said.

“So we’re seeing this trend of more of these robberies.”

Hayes said part of his organization’s job is to give jewelry store owners information about making their businesses more secure.

He said he believes in most cases, suspects will scout out the store before carrying out the robbery.

“People will go in to see what kind of security you have. Not just the physical security but there’s policy things that you can have. Do the staff seem to pay attention to who’s coming and going,” he said.

“How security conscious is the store itself?”

He said while it may not be financially feasible for jewelry store owners to implement all possible security measures, certain measures can go a long way to dissuade would-be criminals from targeting that particular business.

Suspects want “the path of least resistance,” Hayes added.

He said one of the key pieces of advice he often gives owners is to reduce the amount of jewelry that they keep out at a given time.

“If you (typically) have $1.5 million worth of jewelry out, you could have $500,000 or $250,000,” he said.

He said time-release safes, where it takes several minutes for the safe to open after a code has been entered, can help protect valuables.

“It takes you five minutes but your client isn’t likely, I’m assuming, to leave over a five-minute delay,” he said.

Hayes said that some stores have started adding security bollards in front of the building to prevent suspects from driving into the stores to smash display cases.

“From a cost to benefit ratio, I think you get a lot of bang for your buck if you have the ability to put those in,” he noted.

“That would probably go a long way to stop those vehicle smashing attacks.”