(IDEX Online) - The cost of crime against jewelers in the US almost doubled in 2019.
But the actual number of thefts, burglaries and robberies was virtually unchanged at 1,438, indicating a steep rise in the value of goods taken in each crime.
The total cost last year was £101m, up 89 per cent, according to the Jewelers Security Alliance's (JSA) Annual Crime Report.
The average loss from sophisticated safe attack burglaries more than doubled from $221,000 in 2018 to $491,000 in 2019, said the JSA, blaming "highly mobile professional burglary crews".
There was also a noticeable rise in the proportion involving guns and violence (22 per cent and 37 per cent respectively).
There were no jeweler homicides in 2019, for the first time in decades, but three robbers were killed while carrying out their crime.
There were five incidents in which a person was shot but not killed, and four in which shots were fired but nobody was hit.
So-called Three-Minute Burglaries - rapid night-time smash and grabs - accounted for $4.8m of the losses and off-premises thefts - goods in transit - accounted for $3.1m.
Texas and California suffered by far the highest proportion of all robberies (defined as taking of property from a person by use of force or fear) - 19 per cent and 14 per cent.
California and Texas were also the worst-hit by burglaries (defined as entering premises after closing with intent to commit a crime) - 21 per cent nine per cent respectively....