Strong-Armed Jewelry Robbery Suspects Found In Concord Using Flock Surveillance Network

CONCORD, CA — Police arrested three people suspected of targeting elderly victims for gold jewelry after investigators used Flock surveillance cameras to track their vehicle from San Jose to Concord and back again.

The investigation began at about 2:57 p.m. Aug. 20, when San Jose Police Department patrol officers responded to a strong-armed robbery in a business parking lot in the 5300 block of Almaden Expressway.

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Police said an adult female suspect approached an elderly woman, forcibly took her ring and gold chain necklace, and fled in a vehicle driven by an adult man.

Patrol officers worked with the department's Real Time Intelligence Center, or RTIC, and used Flock surveillance cameras to identify a suspect vehicle. Intelligence Center personnel monitored the vehicle as it traveled out of San Jose, police said.

The next day, Aug. 21, Flock surveillance cameras located the vehicle in Concord, where Concord police notified San Jose investigators that the suspects had attempted another strong-armed robbery outside a business, according to police.

Flock surveillance cameras later alerted the intelligence center personnel that the vehicle had returned to San Jose and was at a business in the 2200 block of Senter Road.

Patrol officers stopped the vehicle and detained two adult men and one adult woman. Police identified them as Ruxandra Constantin, Caldararu Constantin, and Constantin Constantin.

As officers took the three suspects into custody, an elderly woman approached them and reported that the same suspects had just robbed her of her gold chain necklace, police said.

Officers found Ruxandra Constantin carrying a bag containing multiple pieces of gold jewelry, according to police.

San Jose Police Department Robbery Unit detectives took over the investigation and determined that the suspects were also responsible for the grand theft of a gold chain necklace from an elderly man on Aug. 16, police said.

That theft also occurred in a business parking lot in the 5300 block of Almaden Expressway.

Police booked all three suspects into Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of robbery.

San Jose police said chain-snatch robberies have increased in the city and throughout the Bay Area. Suspects typically approach elderly people walking in public and forcibly remove gold chain necklaces, according to police.

Police said suspects sometimes use distractions, including offering to sell jewelry, starting conversations, or swapping jewelry without victims realizing it.

Anyone with information about these cases or similar incidents should contact Det. Thandi at 4415@sanjoseca.gov or 408-277-4166.