A late-night smash-and-grab at a Palm Beach Gardens Best Buy on Saturday escalated into a high-speed chase along the Florida Turnpike and ended with two Orlando brothers in handcuffs. Investigators say the pair zeroed in on pricey cameras and phones, bolted in a rented SUV, and were stopped only after troopers used a PIT maneuver to shut the whole thing down.
According to the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department, 30-year-old Noah Kalif Jones and 28-year-old Nykee A. Jones walked into the Best Buy on Legacy Avenue around 8 p.m. dressed like they were on the job, wearing orange construction vests and safety glasses. Police say they pulled out wire snips to cut merchandise from security tethers, then yanked high-end cameras, lenses and cell phones off the displays, making off with more than $36,000 in goods and leaving an estimated $30,000 worth of damage to doors and display tables. A customer who is a former law-enforcement officer followed the suspects into the parking lot and snapped photos of a rented gray Ford Bronco that investigators say was their getaway vehicle.
How the chase ended
Officers used those witness photos to track the Bronco as it sped off, and the pursuit ultimately wrapped up on the southbound Florida Turnpike when troopers disabled the SUV with a pursuit-intervention technique, allowing deputies to move in and arrest both occupants without further incident, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Authorities recovered nearly all of the stolen merchandise from the rented SUV, according to local reporting. The coordinated response kept the chase off residential surface streets and ended with both suspects in custody.
Arrests and booking
Both men were booked into the county jail and are facing multiple felony counts, including grand theft, criminal mischief over $1,000 and the use or possession of an anti-shoplifting device, according to booking information and local reports. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office maintains a public booking blotter where custody and charge details are posted for newly booked inmates, and that database reflects recent arrests and processing at the county detention centers.
Retail theft and local concern
Smash-and-grab tactics and coordinated retail theft have been climbing nationwide, pushing stores to ramp up security and nudging law enforcement to share more data across jurisdictions. A 2025 study from the National Retail Federation found retailers reporting increases in shoplifting incidents and associated violence, and many chains say they are pouring money into exterior cameras, locking display cases and license-plate readers as part of their response.
Palm Beach Gardens police credited the witness who photographed the vehicle for helping investigators identify and stop the getaway SUV. The department says the case remains under active investigation as authorities sort through evidence and prepare charges for prosecution.
