Rick Terry Jewelry burglarized

The “Grinch” and possibly accomplices paid a visit to Rick Terry Jewelry Designs early Monday Dec. 18.

According to a Knox County Sheriff’s Office report from Detective Eric Kern, “officers responded to an alarm at Rick Terry Jewelry Designs,” 11320 Kingston Pike in Farragut at 12:41 a.m., Monday.

Owner Rick Terry said unknown suspects took engagement ring samples that were in the store’s front case.

“Upon arrival, officers discovered a shattered glass door and cleared the business,” Kern wrote in his report, which also stated officers discovered the main glass case inside the building had been shattered as well.

“We discovered this broken case and sample jewelry gone,” Terry said. “Fortunately, they didn’t get anything of value like fine jewelry, but they sure made a mess.”

According to the report, Terry told officers $3,750 in merchandise had been stolen, and the front door and jewelry case had been damaged at a cost estimated to be around $2,500.

“We don’t know how many samples [were taken] just yet, but we’re going to find out,” he said. “These samples are not live; they are not real jewelry.”

Terry said he was first notified when “my monitoring service called me. We have cameras on apps on phones and iPads, and so we immediately pulled up the cameras. We didn’t see anything going on because they came in and out so fast.

“Now, we’ve got it on the DVR where these clowns arrived,” he added.

“Then the police showed up, and the minute the police officers got here, they saw the glass door in the door was busted and waited for back-up.”

Terry said his son, Matthew Terry, arrived at the store before he did.

“They’re just samples. They usually cost about $75 apiece. We think they got about 25 or 30, so it wasn’t much value. I found one of the pieces in the parking lot,” Rick Terry said.

Rick Terry has experienced break-ins to his business before.

“The other two times, [they broke in] the back window of the shop,” he said. “This is the first time they came in the front door, but we’ve got everything on camera.

“It’s always alarming when our place gets broken into,” the owner added. “We have cameras on all corners of the building, inside and out. What else can you do? We put away everything of value, so when those goobers — those goobers are so stupid — they’re going to break in, you just clean up and go on.”

As for the time of year when this happened, he said, “Their timing is terrible – five to six days before Christmas. We’ve got to push hard over the next few days to get our numbers (up).”