ELYRIA - Police are investigating whether two men stole jewelry from one downtown store Thursday and then tried to pawn it at a second store, stealing more jewelry in the process.

“Until we look into it further, it’s hard to say,” police Sgt. Lee Frank said.

The first theft took place just after 1 p.m. at New to You, a resale shop in the 600 block of Broad St. where two men stole two rings from behind the jewelry counter, a report stated.

According to an employee, one of the thieves was an African American man in his 30s with a tan jacket while the second was a Hispanic man with a shaved head wearing a black jacket.

One of the stolen rings was yellow gold with an opal valued at $32, and the second was white gold with a royal blue stone valued at $40, according to the police report.

At 4:55 p.m., two men tried to pawn a white gold ring with blue stones at AAA Jewelers in the 200 block of Broad St.

An employee told police a bald white male wearing a black jacket showed her a ring he wanted to sell. She described the second man as African American with facial hair wearing a tan coat.

The ring wasn’t real gold so the employee declined to purchase it. During her discussion with the man trying to sell the ring, the employee told police the African American man sat down in a chair next to an open, unlocked display case. She said she turned away from the case while speaking with the first man.

The employee later realized a diamond tennis bracelet valued at between $250 and $300 had been stolen from the display case. Surveillance video “clearly shows the black male reach into the case and take something,” the police report read.

“We have two thefts at two different locations that are similar in nature,” Frank said. “It’s unclear at this time if the suspects in both are the same.”

There have been no arrests and there are no suspects, Frank said, adding that the department is waiting for a copy of the surveillance tape.

Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.

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