Brazen thieves allegedly steal $10,000 in goods from San Francisco's Ferragamo

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco police are searching for suspects accused of stealing $10,000 worth of luxury items from a high-end store called Salvatore Ferragamo in San Francisco's Union Square neighborhood Tuesday night.

Ferragamo specializes in high-end, luxury goods, with many sunglasses costing hundreds of dollars and some shoes priced at more than $1,000.

San Francisco police said approximately seven to nine women and men jumped out of one or two SUVs a couple of blocks away from the store. There is surveillance video of them getting away, but investigators have a reason for not releasing it yet.

There is no broken glass or signs of forced entry outside the store.

Officials said brazen thieves walked into the store Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m., grabbing at least $10,000 worth of merchandise before taking off.

"In this particular case they did use force to try and stop one of the employees who was trying to do the right thing and prevent them from leaving," San Francisco Police Department Ofc. Carlos Manfred said.

SFPD said the way these thieves operate is similar to others targeting high-end stores recently. "It's the style, which is go into a department store when they're open, grab all the high ticket items that are in their vicinity and run out," Manfred said.

"10,000 for me would be half of my store," Top Shelf Style owner Christina Battle said. "There's definitely people that pass through looking for opportunities."

"Unfortunately these crimes occur so quickly that by the time it goes to dispatch, dispatch sends it to us and they're already long gone," Manfred said.

Investigators said the thieves are between 18 and 25 years old and may have left the area in a silver SUV.

Police officers are holding on to the surveillance video for now. "We want to make sure we can do our due diligence and properly identify who these criminals are," Manfred said.

Investigators say it's possible whoever is responsible for this most recent high-end crime is also responsible for others.

Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call the Central Police Station investigation team at (415) 315-2400, the department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444, or can send a tip by text message to TIP411 and start the message with "SFPD."

Bay City News contributed to this story.