Story & Photos by Janet Grella
(with help from Megan Shephard)

Last Wednesday morning (Feb. 3rd) around 4am, a Des Moines Police Officer was on routine patrol downtown.

As he passed WLB Advertiser Kimberley’s Exquisite Jewelry, alarm bells went off, and he spotted a masked man running from the doorway to a car parked nearby.

The officer slammed on his brakes and set off in pursuit of the suspect, who had thrown a bag into the vehicle.

One of Kimberley's glass jewelry cases was smashed during the robbery attempt.

According to Sgt. Bob Collins, Public Information Officer for the Des Moines Police Department, the chase led the pair over a fence and down a hill toward the marina. When the officer yelled, “Stop and drop, or I’ll shoot,” the suspect—armed with a crowbar–continued running, yelling, “Go ahead!”

Wielding his taser, the officer was happy to oblige.

The impact brought the man to the ground, where he was handcuffed.

The suspect, a 40-year-old Seattle man with a history of burglary convictions, had to be treated for injuries but was ultimately booked into the Regional Justice Center in Kent for investigation of 1st degree robbery and 2nd degree assault (for threatening the officer with the crowbar).

Though he didn’t have any property on his person, officers did find a large garbage can with the jewelery in the trunk of his car when a search warrant was executed on Thursday, Feb 4th.

The last thing you want to hear when you pick up the phone at 4:11am is “you’ve been robbed.”

Around $65,000 worth of jewelry was recovered.

That’s exactly what Kim Beasley’s husband Bill heard when he answered the phone call from the alarm company that morning. Within five minutes Kim (owner of WLB Advertiser Kimberley’s Esquisite Jewelery on 7th in Des Moines) and Bill were on the scene and amazingly enough, the suspect had already been apprehended.

Kim called The Waterland Blog to report this incident because she wanted to publicly commend the Des Moines police on their quick and thorough actions.

“Bless their hearts, they were paying attention. Our police did a marvelous job,” said Kim. She added that “the officer did everything he could to apprehend” (the suspect).

In the 10 years since opening, Kimberley’s has experienced only one other attempt to burgle the store. Kim credits this to the police telling her to keep the lights on and the blinds up so when they cruise by they can see if anyone’s inside.

Usually robbery victims don't smile, but Kimberley had a good reason to, thanks to Des Moines Police.

And there could be a happy ending. The police feel that they recovered all the stolen jewelry. But until Kim completes a full inventory of the items returned by the police, the ones found in the parking lot, and the entire store she won’t know for sure.

At the time WLB posted this story, Kim estimated the value of the stolen items at nearly $65,000.

She also has major damages to her cases and door.

In the meantime, Kim invites all our readers and her customers “to come and buy what’s left in the store.”