You don’t often see smash-and-grab burglaries in the upscale Contra Costa County enclave of Orinda, but one happened there this weekend, as the perpetrators reportedly attacked staff and customers with pepper spray while stealing $100,000 worth of jewelry.  

We’ve reported on some pretty brazen smash-and-grab robberies, with cars sometimes ramming into storefronts, and often stealing whole ATM machines. But we’ve certainly never seen a smash-and-grab in the wealthy Contra Costa suburb of Orinda, where KRON4 reports smash-and-grabbers robbed a consignment store and attacked staff and customers with pepper spray. The owner of the shop tells that station they haven’t experienced a robbery like that in 25 years.

The burglary reportedly happened around 11 am Saturday at Hilton House Consign & Design in downtown Orinda. Five men reportedly entered the store and pepper-sprayed employees and customers, then smashed display cases with hammers to steal much of the shop’s stock of jewelry.

“They’re not gentlemen; they weren’t gentlemen that bombed in and our staff was crying and it was very very upsetting to us in our small community, this just doesn’t happen here,” Hilton House owner Cyndi Hilton Girgis told KRON4, adding that the burglars even pepper-sprayed an elderly woman. “She didn’t have to go to the hospital, which I thought because she was, an older lady and the customers were fine. I had one of the staff go home.”

Hilton Girgis estimates the thieves took $100,000 in jewelry, as well as doing $20,000 in damage to the store. The thieves were almost caught, but not quite. An employee did hit a panic button in the back of the store to alert police, but the officers just barely missed them.

Hilton House has launched a GoFundMe to help the store rebuild. “Despite this setback, we are committed to rebuilding and continuing our service to the community,” the GoFundMe says. “Your contributions will help us restore our inventory and enhance security measures to ensure a safe environment for our customers and employees.”

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call the Orinda Police Department at (925) 254-6820, or you can submit a tip at orindatip@cityoforinda.org.

Related: Burglars Ram Cars Into as Many as Ten Oakland Businesses In Weekend Smash-and-Grab Spree

Image: Jennifer M via Yelp