Brazen Burglar’s Scheme to Steal Watches Shatters : Crime: Man crashes truck through glass doors of Brea Broadway. After police surprise him, he drops loot and flees.

A daredevil burglar crashed a truck through glass doors of the Broadway department store at Brea Mall early Wednesday morning, smashed a jewelry case and scooped up $57,000 worth of watches, but fled empty-handed when police arrived.

“There was glass all over,” said Police Detective Dave Jones. “It was a brazen and unintelligent thing to do. It’s pretty unique for someone to try and break into a major mall at that hour.”

The burglar, who remains at large, triggered a silent alarm after he drove a stolen pickup into the glass at 3:20 a.m. Within a minute, an officer arrived as the burglar was walking out with two shopping bags filled with 145 watches.

When the man spotted the officer, he dropped the bags and a hammer, jumped into the truck and sped off, Jones said.

“The officer pursued him throughout the city for about five minutes before the engine of the truck blew up,” Jones said. The burglar ran, jumping a fence and disappearing into a 100-acre tree nursery at Lambert Road and Valencia Avenue. Police dogs searched the area without success.

Police recovered all of the watches, which included expensive brand names such as Gucci and Movado. They are still looking for the discerning thief, described as about 6 feet tall and 220 pounds.

“He went for the highly priced watches,” Jones said. “He knew exactly what he was going after.”

The shattered glass strewn around the doors was cleaned up by the time the store opened.

“We had everything cleaned up before the customers even came into the store, so they really didn’t notice anything at all,” said Lang Whitten, the store’s operation manager.