Pickup truck driven into W.V. jewelry store

WEST VALLEY CITY — A jewelry store suffered extensive damage last week when someone drove a pickup truck into it.

Police are trying to determine if the incident was an attempted burglary or if it has any ties to a fatal police shooting last month.

About 2:30 a.m., someone backed a white truck into Pailin Jewelry, 3538 S. Redwood Road.

"It backed completely into the business. Through the glass, the front counter, clear back into the office area," said West Valley Police Capt. Tom McLachlan.

The incident was caught by surveillance video from a 7-Eleven across the street, he said. For someone to position the truck in front of the store like that and back the truck into it, McLachlan said there's no way it was an accident.

"It would have had to be on purpose," he said.

Nothing in the store, however, was taken. McLachlan said that could have been due to the fact that all the jewelry and other valuables were kept in a safe at night and not in the display cases. However, he also noted the truck's driver drove away right after it was backed in, and the driver apparently did not try to get out.

"Everything right now points to an attempted burglary," McLachlan said.

However, he said detectives would look at all possible motives and connections, including an incident at the same store in July.

On July 1, a man entered the jewelry store, robbed the business and then took the owner's wife hostage. As he walked outside with the woman to waiting police officers, she was able to break free and run. Investigators said that's when 36-year-old Thanh M. Tran fired a shot at officers who returned fire, killing him.