Guelph police have released security video in the armed robbery of the Peoples Jewellers at the Stone Road Mall in Guelph last month.
On Friday, Jan. 28, two men entered the store armed with a gun and a hammer, ordering customers and employees to the ground and smashing display cases.
The heist is remarkably similar to an unsolved robbery at the Peoples Jewellers location in Kitchener's Fairview Park Mall.
In that case, on the evening of Dec. 1, three men entered the store and while a gunman threatened the clerks, two other masked men took an unknown amount of jewelry.
Detectives from Guelph and Waterloo Region are planning a meeting later this week at Waterloo Regional Police Service headquarters after consulting on the cases.
Guelph Police Inspector Maurice Obergan says "They've got a meeting scheduled this week with Waterloo investigators to look at all the similarities because they don't know at this point in time whether we're looking at the same culprits or not."
The robbery in Guelph took place just a day after three men were arrested in Kitchener in connection with robberies at two other Kitchener-Waterloo area jewelry stores and a Cashmax Payday Loans location.
The timing could indicate the suspects felt the heat was off, but police are confident those responsible will be caught.
Obergan says "We're not going to tolerate this kind of action by anybody and our guys are on that, working very hard."
The fact that guns were used in both robberies has ‘upped the ante' for police.
Waterloo Regional police spokesperson Olaf Heinzel says "Some of the robberies we've seen of course have been related specifically to property, but any time suspects start to raise the bar, if you will, it's certainly more concerning for police."
