Armed Robbers Order Customers to Floor, Take Jewelry From Mall

WESTMINSTER —  Four masked, gun-wielding robbers ordered customers and employees at a Westminster Mall department store to lie on the floor and then escaped with about $100,000 in jewelry, police said Tuesday.

Carrying handguns, the four entered Best Products Co. about 8:20 p.m. Monday and headed to the jewelry section, police said. The men shouted for everyone to “get down” and demanded that a store clerk open the jewelry display counters.

The men scooped up the jewelry and ran from the store, Sgt. Mike Mittelstaedt said. They were last seen running on Edwards Street and were still at large Tuesday, police said.

The robbery was the second incident at the Westminster Mall in little more than a week.

On Nov. 30 a teen-age boy was stabbed in the arm and lung during a gang fight on the mall’s first floor near the atrium. Police arrested six juveniles and held one on suspicion of attempted murder shortly afterward.

After the stabbing, the Police Department boosted the number of uniformed officers who are regularly assigned to the mall during the holidays from two to four, said Officer Dave McDowell, the police chief’s adjutant. “Two people’s not bad coverage,” McDowell said.