Roof penetrating thieves clean out vacationing California family's jewelry store: 'It's a nightmare'

Police in a California community are investigating a jewelry heist at a local business where thieves got away with nearly $1 million in jewelry, diamonds, gold and cash. 

The owner of jewelry store Desiré Jewelry, in Glendora, shared surveillance video of the May 15 robbery, showing four to five thieves entering the store through the roof and drilling through two steel safes for approximately six hours before finally leaving with $800,000 in goods. 

Monir Kassis, the owner of Desiré, told Fox News Digital he did not even discover the burglary until he returned home from an anniversary trip with his wife, Jennifer, on May 18.  

"It's a nightmare what we are going through right now," Kassis said. 

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Kassis said that the store's surveillance cameras captured the whole heist, which took over six hours, and showed the thieves enter the store through the roof and using power tools, believed to be drills and torches, to break into two of the three steel safes.

 "They got my personal jewelry, my wife's personal jewelry, our customers' jewelry. It's devastating, you know, customers have been coming in this week to pick up, and I've had to tell them what's going on and say "sorry, we'll make it up to you." So we are trying to get back to business and see how we can pay and make it up to our customers, that's the most important thing," Kassis explained.

Among the items stolen from the store, Kassis said he had several family heirlooms that are irreplaceable.

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"I just want my wife's personal jewelry that I have been gifting her for the last 23, 24 years we've been married, and it's very sentimental items for her and our children. Like one of the rings that she was keeping for my daughter when she gets married. And she wanted to give another ring one day for my son's future wife. You know, it's all gone, those sentimental items I cannot replace," Kassis said. 

Kassis said he also hired a private investigator in conjunction with the local police investigation, who believes that this was not a random theft and that he believes someone was watching his store. 

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"The private investigator thinks he may have a lead already, which matches what the police have been telling us. They say this is bigger than what we think. It almost feels like something out of a movie script," Kassis said.

Police told Kassis that they are also continuing to review evidence from the scene, including what they believe is blood left on one of the safes and hope that DNA can help lead them to a suspect. 

Kassis, a man of faith, said despite this horrible experience his family has endured, his life could be much worse, and he's grateful for many other things he has.

"It's a nightmare, but we are going to get through it. I can tell you that in the Bible, Job, he went through a lot more than what we did. He lost his family, he lost his mind, money, he lost his wife, children, and health, but God blessed him more because he was faithful, and we are faithful and no matter what, we still have our family and health and, hopefully, our jewelry is returned to our customers and my wife and children," Kassis said. 

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Police are urging anyone with information about the incident to contact the Glendora Police Department at 626-914-8250.  

Fox News Digital reached out to the Glendora Police Department for comment.