Seven suspects caught on camera breaking into optometry office

Seven people broke into a Glendale optometry office early Sunday morning and, in two minutes, made off with $200,000 worth of eyewear, the owner said.

Surveillance footage shows the group — clad in black clothes, beanies and gloves — running to all corners of Blue Eyes Optical after prying open the front door with a crowbar around 3:45 a.m. The suspects quickly dumped all the display eyewear into large bags.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said co-owner Gor Vartanyan.

They fled in two getaway cars, a Mercedes-Benz S500 and a Chevrolet Tahoe, in which two additional suspects were believed to have been waiting, Vartanyan said.

The high-end boutique is located just half a mile away from the Glendale police station in the 100 block of West Wilson Avenue.

“I really want them to be caught,” said Vartanyan, who called the job “sloppy” since the thieves left their faces exposed.

This is the third time Vartanyan’s family business, which has been on Wilson Avenue for almost 10 years, has been broken into in recent years. In 2012, $60,000 worth of eyewear was stolen by one suspect. Back then, Vartanyan said, he didn’t have insurance coverage for that one day because he was switching insurance companies.

“We tried to save $50 a month and we lost $60,000,” Vartanyan said.

No one was ever caught, he said.

This time around, Vartanyan thought he was prepared. One has to pass through three doors to enter the store from the back. In the front, the windows have sensors and are bulletproof, and the store has eight security cameras.

“I thought it was impossible that someone can get in,” Vartanyan said, adding that this time, he has insurance.

In a strange coincidence, Vartanyan said his 1-year-old son woke up at 3:45 a.m. and cried for two minutes straight — exactly when the suspects were in the store — before calming down.

“He didn’t want to eat, the diaper was clean, he was just screaming and crying,” Vartanyan said. “All of sudden, he calms down, and I got a call from the dispatch center.”

On Monday afternoon, customers were trickling in and out through the back of the store, some unaware of what had happened hours before. One customer had brought his glasses to the shop on Saturday for new lenses, but the surveillance footage shows them being taken.

Meanwhile, police tape blocked the front entrance while, inside, shards of shattered glass covered the floor and cabinet tops and several pairs of frames left behind were scattered on the floor.

Anyone with information about the burglary is asked to call Glendale police at (818) 548-4911.