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Two men hunted in a smash-and-grab robbery of a Stratford jewelry store were arrested in Niagara Falls.

Niagara Regional police arrested two men on Jan. 4 after they were seen entering a vehicle in Niagara Falls with license plates that had been reported stolen.

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The arrests were made one day after four men, dressed completely in black clothing, entered Paris Jewelers at the Stratford Mall and smashed multiple glass display cases and grabbed an unknown amount of jewelry.

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One bystander filmed the robbery from behind a bench between the store and an LCBO store. In the nine-second clip shared by Stratford police, one suspect smashed the glass while the other three scooped jewelry into bags. All four suspects were wearing masks and hoods, with only their eyes visible, and they were in and out of the store in less than a minute.

The suspects were last seen traveling east on Ontario Street, leaving Stratford in a black four-door sedan that police said could have been a Chrysler 300, Stratford police said.

Niagara Regional police said detectives saw two suspicious men entering a vehicle in Niagara Falls on Jan. 4 with license plates that had been reported stolen.

The males were arrested and found to have stolen jewelry and a loaded nine-millimeter handgun in their possession, Niagara Regional police said.

No weapons were reported to have been used in the Stratford robbery other than the instrument used to smash the glass. The two store employees were not physically injured during the robbery, police added at the time.

Niagara police reportedly recovered and returned more than $135,000 of jewelry to the Stratford store.

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Two 21-year-old men of no fixed address are charged with possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, possessing a prohibited firearm, possessing a restricted firearm, careless storage of a firearm and unauthorized possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle.

An unknown amount of jewelry from the robbery remains unrecovered, and two other suspects are still unidentified.

The two men arrested remain in custody in Niagara.

Stratford police thanked the public, Niagara Regional police and staff at Paris Jewelers and the Stratford Mall for their assistance. Anyone with information is requested to contact the Stratford police at 519-271-4141 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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