Original subtitles

We got a call about a jewelry store robbery.

A 911 caller saw three men dressed as women--

women's clothes, wigs, makeup.

They ordered them to get on the floor,

face down, toward the back of the store.

They did have guns.

They saw the police outside, and then they took off,

running out the back.

And now you got these guys at large

from a violent armed robbery.

We had all of our resources,

where we're trying to set up our perimeter,

trying to box them in.

How concerned are you that people may

get carjacked any minute now?

Oh, we're very concerned.

We can't put hands on some of these guys.

Then we get a call about four missing people

from a retirement community that's across the street

from the robbery.

It looks like their daily life was disrupted,

and then there's blood,

like something happened here.

In America, we're the first line of defense.

Drug busts, serial killers,

armed robbers, predators of every kind--

we take them off the streets.

People love telling stories about us.

They don't know the half of it.

We save that for when we're talking cop to cop.

This is "PD True."

So how did we get involved in this case, Amy?

Tell me a little bit about it.

We got a call about a jewelry store robbery.

And I went with one of my partners at the time.

And I remember talking to him on the way out there,

like, it's Thursday morning,

who robs a jewelry store at 9:00 in the morning?

Amy Maloveczky joined the PSLPD in 2014,

a life-changing career shift after spending

over 20 years as a classical musician.

In 2016, she was promoted to detective.

So, you know, sometimes, you get those calls,

and it's not exactly what it seems.

Prior to me getting there,

it was coming out through dispatch that

the 911 caller was an off-duty federal agent.

He had been at one of the stores next door.

He saw what he described as three men dressed as women.

He watches them get out of a car

and walk up to this jewelry store.

And then his thought was,

they locked the door behind them,

and that wasn't right.

So suspecting the men were armed, the agent called 911.

Yeah, and it's a safe assumption, right?

You don't go into a jewelry store and say,

"Pretty please, give me all your stuff."

Jorge Colina was a 31-year veteran

of the Miami Police Department

who worked his way up from patrol officer

to chief of department.

How does the call go out?

Does it go out as a robbery in progress

or it's kind of an unknown?

I believe it does go out as a robbery in progress

at that point.

How about you, David?

I'm in a side office at the time

'cause my assignment was fraud and economics.

And they were like, hey, we got a robbery.

David Butterworth joined the PSLPD in 2004.

He worked his way up the ranks to detective

and eventually sergeant.

So because these type of crimes usually don't happen

in Port Saint Lucie, we were all like--

everyone's moving, on top of it,

trying to get there, because we just knew it was very serious.

When we get there, we learn

the thieves have left the scene.

Three suspects left on foot,

and there was a fourth person driving the getaway car,

who sped off.

When this goes out that they're running,

was a description given?

We were told by the 911 caller

that the car that we were looking for was a white SUV.

The guys that had been in the jewelry store

were three Black males.

We knew for sure that there was one in a bright pink suit,

one was dressed in all black,

and the other had on olive green pants.

Okay.

So now we have the information that's put out.

You're bringing in people from everywhere at this point?

We had all of our resources.

We had our K-9 en route.

We were trying to get the helicopter

up from the sheriff's office.

We were trying to set up our-- like, the perimeter,

trying to box them in, so we could

keep them contained and catch them.

Well, Amy, you have an opportunity

to speak to the victims.

How many people were inside?

There were two women inside the store.

One of them was the owner, and her employee.

And what did they tell you happened?

They told us that these men walked

inside the store, dressed as women.

One of them asked about an engagement ring.

And then they proceeded to jump over the counters.

They ordered them to get on the floor,

face down, toward the back of the store.

They did have guns.

And then they could hear them rummaging through the cases

and the drawers and putting stuff into the bags

that they had carried in with them.

The safe was open, so they had gone through the safe as well.

And that must have been terrifying, right,

being told to lay face down on the ground

when someone has a gun in their hand?

Yeah, they were frightened.

They were definitely shaken up.

The shop owner took it over from her father

after he passed away.

It was very important to her.

And so not only just the fear of having a gun pointed at you,

and you don't know what's going to happen next,

but they attempted to get away with almost $1 million's worth.

She could lose everything.

What else did they advise?

The guys that were in there had walkie-talkies,

and that's how they were communicating

with the driver that was outside.

So one of them heard somebody on the walkie-talkie say,

"The cops are here."

So they kind of went to the front door a little bit,

to see if they could get out.

They saw the police outside,

and then they took off running out the back.

So when the guys fled the store,

they dropped the bags that were full of jewelry.

So it almost sounds like a bad movie

until it gets pretty serious.

I mean, like you said, this is a safe community.

And these guys are armed.

And this is just after 9:00 in the morning,

so this is traffic time. - It's busy.

- It's busy. - It's busy.

There's a lot of people out there.

And there could be an evolution now of a robbery gone bad,

where they had to flee, and now potentially

a violent act in their attempt to get away.

Yes.

That's why anybody that was assigned,

getting paid that day, was out there,

trying to help and try to locate these guys.

We got a report that the one in the bright pink suit

and the one wearing all black ran across the street.

And right across the street, we have a small,

freestanding emergency room.

And then down in the parking lot,

there was a pile of bright pink clothing under the car.

Obviously, that's gonna stick out,

somebody running in a--

a bright pink jumpsuit. - Okay.

One officer goes toward the emergency room,

and she sees a hand sticking out of the bushes.

And it's one of the individuals that was in the jewelry store.

But at this point, he's wearing only boxer shorts and socks.

So at that point, she put him in handcuffs,

put him in the back of the patrol car,

and we had one in custody.

He identified himself as Jerome Simmons.

But he refused to give us information

about the other suspects.

And what did we learn about him?

Like what kind of past does this guy have?

So we run him through the system.

We find out he's from Fort Lauderdale,

and he's got a criminal record.

And one of our sergeants gets a phone call from the ATF

like, hey, why did you run this guy?

So we didn't know the ATF was looking at him.

But once we ran him, they got notified--

They get an alert.

- That we were running him. - Okay.

And that's when we started learning from the ATF,

like, he's part of, like, basically,

a criminal syndicate.

Jerome Simmons and the rest of his crew

are actually wanted by the FBI, the ATF,

and the U.S. Marshals for armed robberies

across the state of Florida and Georgia.

It sounds like an organized crew, and it's violent.

So far they've been able to keep a step ahead of all of us

in law enforcement, anyway, right, including ATF.

What else did you learn from the agents?

She was just able to start giving

different robberies that they've done.

Same MO--dressing as women, makeup,

and robbing the jewelry stores.

It's a four-person crew active

in your robbery. - Our robbery, yes.

So, you know, in terms of disguising,

it sounds utterly ridiculous,

these outfits, because you're gonna attract attention.

I think by wearing oversized clothes

or the extreme amount of makeup,

somebody might not be able

to get an accurate description of their build

or even facial features.

That's a great point.

So what happens next?

And then we learn from the emergency room

that another individual tried to get in the back door.

He wasn't able to get in.

And there was a large box truck that was parked

right outside the emergency room

that was unloading equipment.

And he tried to take the box truck.

But the driver saw him, yelled at him,

and he ran again.

But we were able to find his discarded wig...

Some sunglasses, and some other items

inside the box truck.

We don't know where he is now.

But he's on foot, he's armed, and he could be dangerous.

Now, how concerned are you that people may

get carjacked any minute now?

Oh, we're very concerned.

And so that's why we're just flooding the area

and just trying to find them.

And are you already drawing a crowd,

media showing up? - Absolutely.

Police up and down our viewing area

are searching for three men they say were

part of a crew of four who pulled off

an armed robbery at a local jewelry store.

You can see the massive police response

in this exclusive video here from Chopper 5.

Not only did officers race to this store,

they also quickly locked down four nearby schools.

We have a retirement community

right across the street and several schools in the area.

If they feel desperate enough,

who knows what they're capable of?

So one person is caught immediately.

One person tries to steal a truck by the urgent care.

We don't know where that person is at.

And the third one is still at large as well?

Correct.

What about the getaway driver?

We can't locate the getaway driver either.

So then we speak to an eyewitness,

who saw the third suspect.

He was wearing the olive green pants,

running towards the Pet Supermarket

just west of where the robbery took place.

So officers asked the employees,

did anybody come in here that would

have matched this description?

Two of the employees said, yeah,

there was a lady that walked in and asked to use the bathroom,

and used the bathroom, and then walked out as a guy.

So when our officers go in the bathroom,

sure enough, there's paper towels with makeup on them,

and there's olive green pants in the wastebasket,

and a wig under the shopping cart in the store.

We were able to get video surveillance from that,

but it doesn't show where he went after that.

Well, it looks like that was planned of I can--

I can take something off,

and now I'm wearing something else that's gonna

help me get away as well. - Yes.

So while we're in the area,

we get a call for-- it's a attempt to contact.

And so it's in a retirement community

across the street from the robbery.

The caller said, my friend Jim was

supposed to take him and his son Bryan golfing today.

Jim never misses a tee time.

He never cancels without adequate notice.

Like, it's just not his character

for him not to be here.

When speaking with the caller,

we learned that Jim and Christine Kendall

are snowbirds from Toronto.

They're spending the winter down here.

And that week, they had their son Bryan

and his girlfriend staying with them.

The caller said that he's called their cell phone.

And he's like, for none of them to answer,

he's like, it was just very concerning for him.

And he knew what was going on.

He heard about the robbery.

So you go over to the house?

So officers are there.

I show up also.

There's no broken windows or anything like that

to show like a forced entry into the house.

We call their phones.

They're ringing inside the house.

So they didn't have phones.

And we see a brand new gallon of milk sitting on the counter.

People left in a rush?

People left in a rush.

It looks like their daily life was disrupted.

And then there's blood.

Enough to cause us concern.

So at this point, we're still not sure

if it's related to the robbery across the street,

but something bad happened in this house.

The other detectives started asking neighbors,

hey, did you see anything?

A couple of neighbors were like,

we saw them leaving about an hour ago,

driving their vehicle.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

So neighbors weren't concerned.

The only person that had concern was the friend

because they were missing their tee time.

Somebody could have fallen and hit their head,

and now we're just rushing off to the hospital?

- Yes. - Okay.

When we asked the friend, he's like,

well, I went to the hospital 'cause it's next door.

And he's like, and they weren't there.

At this point, we're starting a criminal investigation

because we don't know what happened,

and these people could be in serious danger.

We tape off the house.

I'm going back to my office.

I'm gonna start writing a search warrant for the house.

As I'm leaving their community...

they had like a red SUV--

and here it comes in with four people in it.

And I'm like, no freaking way.

Like, there's no way they're coming back, right?

- Yeah. - So I just do a U-turn,

follow them right to the house.

I just want to see, like you guys all right?

And they get out.

And they're like, we were kidnapped.

Wow.

So there was me and three other detectives there.

We separate the four of them,

and we started doing our interviews.

I spoke to the son, Bryan.

He said he and his dad ran down to Home Depot

to buy some tools for a renovation project

that morning.

And unfortunately, they left their garage door open.

And they come back, they walk in,

and his girlfriend and his mother

are sitting on the couch.

And he says a guy, wearing women's clothing and makeup

comes out at him, pointing a gun in his face.

And so the guy is like, sit down.

So Bryan goes and sits down.

Jim comes in.

Jim is 70 years old, Scottish.

He's got some scrap in him.

Yeah, he's not taking none of it.

He's sees this guy.

He's like, hey, get the hell out of my house.

They grab on him.

They start tussling.

And that's when Jim is pushed into a counter,

where he hits his eye.

And he ends up getting an injury,

an open laceration to his eyebrow.

- That's the blood? - That was the blood.

And that's when the suspect is like,

I don't want to go back to jail,

but I can't stay here.

He's upset because he knows the cops are in the area,

looking for him, and he needs an escape plan.

Okay. So what's the plan now?

So he requests a shirt.

He requests shorts.

He requests a new pair of shoes and a towel.

He starts wiping all of his makeup off.

He changes his clothes.

He took, like, a shopping bag,

and he took all that stuff with him.

So it wasn't left at the house.

He's like, you're gonna drive me down to Fort Lauderdale.

So they get in the car.

He gets in the very back row.

He still has the firearm with him.

And he gives them the directions.

How long a drive is that?

- About an hour and 45 minutes. - Okay.

So this was a trek.

It was a trek.

What happens then?

He directs them to an open field

next to some kind of a little party store business.

He walks to this brick wall that separates

this grass field to an apartment complex,

jumps the wall, gone.

And he's gone.

So they drive straight home.

And that's when we see them at the house.

So I'm like, holy crap.

And at that point, we're like, hey,

this is your second guy,

the one who tried to get into the box truck

and into the hospital.

He made it across to the development,

and he's the one who broke into the house.

That is crazy.

I mean, this is all traumatic stuff.

They were kidnapped, held at gunpoint.

And I wonder about that, right?

I wonder, with the Canadians, are they thinking, hey, man,

let's not make a big deal.

Let's just go back home, and we'll call it in.

This is probably normal shit here in the States, right?

We don't want to be overly dramatic.

I think they were just traumatized.

They just wanted to get back home.

- So they're in shock. - Yeah.

- Okay. - They had no phones.

I don't believe they felt-- 'cause they weren't

familiar with the area, I don't believe they wanted

to stop and ask anywhere to use the phone.

Wow. I mean, it's all crazy.

Are you guys working with ATF at this point now?

So--yes.

So they had identified this crew

some time ago because they've been hitting places everywhere.

Yeah, and the ATF was able to identify

the other three suspects for us as well.

The one with the green pants that went into

the Pet Supermarket was Jerome Simmons's brother,

Jerry Simmons.

The getaway driver was identified

as Christopher Brinson.

And the guy who kidnapped the Canadians

was Adrian Hardy.

You guys learned these guys did a series of robberies,

violent crime, federal nexus.

Now, at this point, you have just the one guy

that's actually in custody?

- Correct. - Okay.

I mean, that had to wig everybody out.

How do you think that's going to be received?

I know everyone is going to be very concerned,

especially that we can't put hands on some of these guys.

And we're worried that they're going to do this again.

And the next time, their victims might not be so lucky.

What ultimately happens to them?

Now, the U.S. Marshals come in.

And for Adrian Hardy, they get a tip that

he's in a restaurant in Orlando.

And as he's walking out,

they snag him, get him into custody.

They take him into custody.

What about the other guys?

How do we eventually get them into custody?

Soon after Adrian Hardy was taken into custody,

Christopher Brinson and Jerry Simmons were

spotted driving in Fort Lauderdale.

So they were pulled over and arrested.

The planning, all the stuff that they did,

obviously, none of that paid off.

Because, ultimately, I mean, there were

serious consequences to pay.

Absolutely.

Thank God everything happened and turned out the way it did

and that all of our victims were safe.

This was a case where,

I mean, everybody pitched in.

It was as many road officers as we had on duty that day.

We had the sheriff's department out there.

Our case wouldn't have come together without

all those other pieces.

When you think about the outfits and some of the stuff

they did, and all that other stuff,

you lose sight of the fact these are incredibly

violent people and these are traumatic moments

in people's lives.

And you guys put that to an end.

Nice work. - Thank you.

Absolutely.