Smash-and-grab robbery ends with suspects shot by jewelry store owner
ATASCOCITA, Texas -- A four-person robbery crew transformed a Texas jewelry store's showroom in a matter of seconds, hoping to get away with jewels last Saturday.
In the end, the store owner got the last laugh, despite the damage.
Mid-afternoon, a man tugged at the front door of the store, which is controlled by a security buzzer.
"I'm the one who buzzed him in," said employee Deana Henson. "When he opened the door, and stuck his foot there, and was on the phone, I knew something was wrong."
Moments later, four robbers masked with bandannas rushed the store and hammered away at the glass showcase.
What they didn't know was that Delton Hayes, the store's owner, was watching from the office, behind a one-way mirror.
"They were smashing the cases, but they stopped as soon as I started shooting," Hayes said.
Surveillance video shows them entering, reaching into the jewelry case, and then running for their lives out the door.
Hayes later learned two of them had been wounded.
"One was shot in the hand, according to a deputy. I shot the other one in the butt," Hayes said.
The robbers were arrested later at an apartment complex in Channelview, near Uvalde and I-10. Inside the getaway car, jewelry and drugs were recovered.
"The deputies brought the jewelry back to me, and it wasn't ours, which means somebody else was hit," he said. "They managed to get one ring from my store, but they dropped it in the parking lot, and it was recovered."
All four robbers were described as young. One believed to be 17, but may still be charged as an adult.
