SAN JOSE — Two Macy’s shoppers at Westfield Valley Fair rushed in to try to stop a trio of thieves who broke a glass case filled with Rolex watches Sunday, with one shopper wrestling a suspect and the other grabbing a thief’s backpack after he took a swing at a woman.
“He pissed me off. He tried to punch the lady. And it’s like, no, you just don’t do that,” Rod Simpson, 65, told the Mercury News within minutes of the heist.
After what San Jose police officials called a “strong-arm robbery,” the three suspects, wearing black ski masks and hoodies, escaped in a red Honda, taking some of the loot with them, witnesses said.
The smash-and-grab comes six weeks after a Black Friday shooting inside the mall, where three shoppers, including two women, were injured allegedly by a 17-year-old gang member targeting a 28-year-old he perceived as a gang rival. A preliminary hearing is planned Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Court for three suspected adult accomplices, including the shooting suspect’s older brother.
On Sunday, San Jose police were on the scene at Macy’s within minutes, but the thieves already had fled. Officers interviewing witnesses in Macy’s declined to comment as did store employees. Next to the broken case, glass covered the travertine floor where a gold watch glimmered from the open black backpack that Simpson had retrieved…