ELKHART — Elkhart police are investigating a jewelry heist at a store in the Concord Mall. Thieves got away with thousands of dollars of gold items. It's the third time the store has been robbed in the past four years.

“Anytime you go into a store and break open a display case and take several thousand dollars worth of jewelry, it's awful brazen,” said Elkhart Police Lt. Ed Windbigler.

The theft took place sometime between Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon at the JC Penney store in Concord Mall.

"[It] happened while they were open it appears — somebody forced open a display case, and nobody witnessed it happen, at this point,” Windbigler said.

They got away with $25,000 worth of gold crosses, crucifixes and rings.

In June of 2005, the same store was broken into. Thieves broke through the doors and smashed several glass cases. They got away with $50,000 worth of jewelry.

Seven months before that there was another break-in — in October of 2004 thieves got away with over $400,000 worth of different jewelry items. They busted out door glass to get in and once inside smashed about 10 jewelry cases, taking everything from rings to watches to necklaces. They dropped some of the items making their getaway.

For now, police can not say whether the economy had anything to do with the thefts.

“Can we say for sure the economy is making a criminal become a criminal? We don't know,” Windbigler said. “Crime does go up when the economy goes bad."

Managers at the store would not comment on the thefts.