Two men who cut a hole through the wall of a neighboring store’s bathroom to break into a jewelry store in Cape Coral, Fla., made off with more than $500,000 in inventory and two firearms after restraining and assaulting the store manager on Tuesday, according to federal court documents.
The haul included more than 1,000 pieces of jewelry, according to court documents.
The Cape Coral Police Department had not identified the pair, but a man accused of being the getaway driver, Ivel Sanchez Rivera, was arrested in the case, said the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Mr. Sanchez Rivera, 52, of Hialeah, Fla., a city near Miami, was charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by violence, interference with commerce by violence, and using and brandishing a firearm in connection to a crime of violence.
It was not immediately clear on Thursday if Mr. Sanchez Rivera had a lawyer.
Just after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, a person with remote access to the surveillance system inside Tio Jewelers, a store in Cape Coral, watched live video of two men who were moving through the store while the manager lay on the ground, according to the federal criminal complaint.
That person called the police, who found the manager inside the shop with his arms restrained by zip ties, according to the complaint. The manager told the officers that he had been robbed at gunpoint by two masked men and that they had struck him with a pistol.
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The manager said he had opened the store around 9:45 a.m. and gone to disable the alarm system when the two armed men confronted him.
At the time, the manager was carrying a satchel containing a Sig Sauer 9-millimeter handgun, which the men took by force, the complaint said.
The men forced him to open a safe containing the jewelry. They stuffed a backpack and trash bags with the jewelry pieces, including watches, bracelets and chains.
After emptying the safe, the men restrained the manager and took his Breitling watch, valued at $5,500. They also took a second handgun, a 9-millimeter Glock 19 that had been sitting on top of an unopened safe, the complaint said.
The men, according to the manager, placed a call and asked someone, believed to be Mr. Sanchez Rivera, to bring the car around so that they could escape. The men left the store through the bathroom, the complaint said.
The store’s owner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Investigators who reviewed video footage discovered that shortly after midnight before the crime, two people pried open the door to a vacant unit next to the jewelry store. They were seen moving in and out of the vacant space for several hours. Investigators found “a large hole” had been cut through the neighboring bathroom to gain access to the jewelry store, according to the complaint.
After about 4:50 a.m., the two men entered the building and did not leave until after the robbery, according to the complaint.
The police identified a black Infiniti car and a driver that they believed were involved in the robbery. The authorities later used a nearby license plate reader to connect the vehicle to Mr. Sanchez Rivera. The police searched his home and found several items that they connected to the scene, including one of the firearms taken during the robbery, court documents said.
Mark Walker is a Times reporter who covers breaking news and culture.
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