Security cameras at a jewelry store in Florida captured a bizarre robbery involving some rather unique apparel on the part of the alleged perpetrators.
Yet the robbery itself was only part of a series of criminal acts that were equal parts comical and terrifying.
According to the police department in Port St. Lucie, Fla., three men robbed LSO Jewellers early last Thursday morning at gunpoint while a fourth suspect waited outside in the getaway vehicle.
Security cameras at the store captured the scene as the three armed men storm into the store — dressed, for some reason, in women’s clothing, with makeup and wigs.
According to an arrest report obtained by CBS-12 News in Florida, store employees said the men’s “white face makeup and red lipstick looked almost cartoonish.”
The alleged robbers are seen getting physical with staff, but the impending arrival of police forced the men to flee out the rear entrance of the store — leaving their bags of merchandise behind.
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Police pursued the fleeing suspects, two of whom were seeing stripping down to their boxers in an apparent attempt to shed their feminine disguises.
The story took a turn from perplexing to terrifying when police say one of the fleeing suspects forced his way into a nearby home and took a family hostage at gunpoint.
According to police, a physical struggle ensued between the suspect, the 70-year-old homeowner, and the homeowner’s 42-year-old son before the suspect was able to corral the family at gunpoint, holding them for over an hour.
“The suspect [then] had all four people enter into their maroon Chevy Traverse and had [the family] drive him to Fort Lauderdale where he was dropped off and fled from the scene,” police said in their official statement.
Police say the 70-year-old man was treated for injuries he sustained in his fight with the suspect, but no one else in either the family or the jewelry store was injured.
Police say they were able to apprehend one of the alleged perpetrators, 29-year-old Jerome Simmons, of Fort Lauderdale. He appeared before a judge last Friday on charges of armed robbery.
The other three men remain at large.