June 13: Out of the around 15 jewelry stores owned by South Asians on a section of Oak Tree Road in Iselin, NJ, Virani Jewelers, one of the oldest in the area, was the target of a brazen smash-and-grab robbery on Friday night minutes before the shop closed for the day.
A group of armed robbers with ski masks barged into the store, overwhelmed the store employees, and within minutes, had ransacked the store of gold and diamonds, and escaped in a car or cars parked outside.
“Police are on the hunt for suspects in a brazen smash and grab robbery at a jewelry store in New Jersey. It happened around 7:45 p.m. Friday at Virani Jewelers on Oak Tree Road in Iselin. Police say that as the store was nearing closing time, an armed group of people wearing masks and gloves followed an employee through the front door. The suspects then forced store employees to the floor before smashing multiple glass display cases with hammers. They emptied the cases, taking off with the jewelry inside. The thieves fled before police could arrive, with the entire robbery taking less than one minute. Some employees sustained non-life threatening injuries.”: ABC7
“The worth of the stolen goods has not yet been determined, but the owner of a neighboring business tells Eyewitness News that the thieves made off with more than $1 million in jewelry. There are at least 10 to 15 other jewelry stores in the surrounding area, and there is no word on recent robberies from those stores.”
NJ1015.com reported: “As one of the group watched the door, the rest shoved jewels into their backpacks and carried full trays from the display cases out of the store. In one minute they were gone, leaving behind shattered glass and emptied display trays on the floor. A second video showed the group leaving in a white Mercedes SUV. The woman who was pushed face-first to the ground and a man who crouched to the ground during the robbery got up and began to survey the damage. The video showed two other workers in the store during the robbery.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Woodbridge Police Detective Perry Penna at 732-624-7700.
The owner of the store is yet to divulge details of loss from the robbery. Here is a past interview from 2019 by Brown Girl Magazine with Aqib Virani, the then CEO of Virani Jewelers.