Authorities are searching for three armed men who held a well-known jeweler and his family at gunpoint during a frightening home invasion in southwest Miami-Dade.
Authorities are searching for three armed men who held a well-known jeweler and his family at gunpoint during a frightening home invasion in southwest Miami-Dade.
Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office deputies said the masked trio entered the home off Southwest 284th Street late Wednesday and into Thursday.
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WATCH HEREOne of the victims was outside his home when the robbers ambushed him and took him inside, officials said.
York Valdes, the owner of York Jewelry in Hialeah, said he was outside his home when one of the suspects put a gun to his head around 11 p.m. Wednesday.
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The family was held at gunpoint while they ransacked the home and fled with the valuables, including their white Cadillac SUV.
"Shut up, sit down, we know you," the thieves said, according to Valdes.
Valdes said he was more concerned about his pregnant wife and daughter during the ordeal, which lasted around five hours.
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"They took all my jewelry, my watches," he said. "Right now I don't care, more the family, you know."
Valdes, who has thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok where he shows off his expensive jewelry, said he normally doesn't bring the items home.
"This is the first time that I bring some expensive watches to my house, I never bring the watches," he said. "I always leave it in the safe box. I never bring money, I never bring nothing."
He said the thieves tried to convince him to go with them to the jewelry store to steal more items there.
The frightening ordeal came to an end when Valdes said he jumped down from the second floor of his house and ran out the door asking for help.
"If I was alone, I don't care, I fighting with one of them, but I did only see the situation and run far away from my house," he said.
"It’s a scary situation. There were three armed men, they were wearing masks, they were inside of their home. So we’re fortunate that nobody was injured in this incident," Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office spokesperson Samantha Choon said.
One neighbor said he may have seen the suspects roaming the neighborhood before the home invasion.
"Three males in dark clothing. That’s unusual over here," Ashon Lillie said. "You can look at the neighborhood, we’re just average people. So something like just stood out. Something like that is unusual."
Authorities are asking the public to check home cameras to see if they may have caught anything suspicious or the SUV driving off.
The incident remains under investigation.
