Thieves backed a car into the front door of Atlas Jewelers on Van Dyke Avenue in Shelby Township around 2 a.m. Monday, shattering glass and making off with several bags of jewelry before vanishing into the dark. Surveillance cameras caught the entire break-in, and the footage shows just how fast it happened: the two masked intruders were in and out of the building in under six minutes.
The vehicle broke straight through the store's front door, according to WXYZ, clearing the way for one thief to start smashing glass display cases while a second intruder entered moments later and began filling a bag with jewelry, as detailed by The Oakland Press. Co-owner Mark Krumins did not learn about the break-in until his alarm company called him in the middle of the night. He then opened an app on his phone to watch a live feed from his own store cameras as the robbery was still unfolding, according to the same report.
Store Secured Its Most Valuable Items in Safes
Despite the chaos, the store's most sensitive and valuable holdings never left the building. All customer orders, repairs and the store's most expensive products were secured in safes, per the Oakland Press account, while some of the showroom inventory on display was taken. A sign posted at Atlas Jewelers afterward reassured customers that their items and belongings remained safe and that the vaults were not affected.
The physical toll on the showroom itself was costly. Damage to the displays alone totals $14,000, Krumins said, a figure that does not include lost business during the closure. Speaking to WXYZ, Krumins described the damage as extensive, with shattered glass scattered throughout the store.
Weeks-Long Closure for Nearly 30-Year-Old Business
Atlas Jewelers, a nearly 30-year-old local business located on Van Dyke Avenue north of 22 Mile Road, will likely be closed for the next few weeks as it cleans up and repairs the damage. The store is still arranging pickups and will continue handling repairs and customer orders while it works through the closure and police search for the suspects, according to the Oakland Press report.
Shelby Township police confirmed the case remains under active investigation but said they are not releasing further information at this time, per the same account. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Shelby Township Police Department at 586-731-2121.
Part of a Rising National Pattern
The tactic used at Atlas Jewelers — driving a vehicle straight through a storefront — has become sharply more common nationwide. The Jewelers' Security Alliance recorded 13 robberies in 2025 in which perpetrators drove a vehicle through the front of an occupied jewelry store, up from zero such incidents reported in 2024, according to National Jeweler. Across all on-premises robberies tracked by the group, the share involving guns, mace or vehicles rammed into stores jumped to 27 percent in 2025 from 17 percent the year before, even as overall reported crimes against jewelers fell 13 percent to 1,233 incidents.
Michigan has seen its own version of this crime before. In November 2022, five masked and hooded suspects stormed Elias Diamonds inside Troy's Oakland Mall, with one smashing showcase glass with a hammer while the others stuffed merchandise into backpacks, according to MLive. Those suspects fled the mall in a GMC Yukon before officers arrived, and the value of what they stole was not known at the time of that report.
