NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
WOODBRIDGE, NJ, August 12, 2026 — A group of masked thieves armed with sledgehammers stormed an Indian-owned jewelry store on New Jersey’s famed Oak Tree Road over the weekend, smashing display cases and escaping with about $1 million worth of gold and diamonds in less than a minute.
The brazen robbery unfolded shortly after 7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 8, at 9Lakha Jewelers in the Iselin section of Woodbridge Township. Surveillance footage shows a silver vehicle pulling up directly outside the store before several people dressed in black rushed inside carrying sledgehammers and large bags.
Within seconds, the suspects began smashing glass display cases and sweeping trays of jewelry into their bags. Co-owner Sonu Chauhan told local media that the entire robbery was over within about 30 to 45 seconds.
One suspect remained in the getaway vehicle and another appeared to hold the door while others smashed the cases, according to an ABC7 review of the surveillance video. Police have said four masked suspects entered the store.
Chauhan was inside the showroom with a customer when the robbery began. The customer fled as the thieves entered, while Chauhan took refuge inside an office. No injuries were reported.
The owners said the thieves escaped with approximately $1 million in gold and diamond jewelry, representing nearly the store’s entire inventory. The family-owned business had been open for only about a year.
The robbery has renewed concerns about security along Oak Tree Road, one of the country’s most prominent South Asian commercial corridors and home to numerous Indian restaurants, grocery stores, clothing businesses and jewelers.
It is also not the first time a jewelry business on the corridor has been targeted in a high-value smash-and-grab.
In June 2025, Virani Jewelers, also on Oak Tree Road in Iselin, was hit in a strikingly similar daytime robbery. Four masked men entered the store on a Saturday, smashed jewelry cases and loaded merchandise into bags before fleeing in an SUV driven by a fifth person. No arrests have been reported in that case.
Virani Jewelers was also the target of a major armed robbery in June 2022. In that case, a masked group entered the store near closing time and stole roughly $1 million in jewelry.
That robbery was later linked by federal prosecutors to a larger East Coast jewelry-store robbery conspiracy. Sixteen defendants were charged in 2023 in connection with a series of robberies, and federal prosecutors said members of the group had traveled from the Washington, D.C., area to rob Virani Jewelers on June 10, 2022. At least one participant was later sentenced to 19 years in federal prison.
The latest robbery has left the Chauhan family questioning whether enough is being done to protect businesses carrying high-value merchandise along the busy corridor.
Co-owner Sushmita Chauhan has called for greater preventive security measures in the area, saying she wants authorities to focus not only on investigating crimes after they happen but also on preventing them.
While the similarities between the recent robberies have raised concerns about a possible pattern, authorities have not publicly established a connection between the August 8 robbery and the earlier Oak Tree Road cases.
Woodbridge Township police are investigating the latest heist. No arrests had been announced as of Tuesday.
Cover screenshots courtesy: ABC7
