Authorities say three men, two armed with hammers and one with a gun, did a smash and grab on a jewelry case at a Pacoima Costco.
A cellphone user caught the below video of the robbery as customers began to panic at the scene:
One witness who spoke to KTLA described what happened:
"They were hitting the glass where the jewelry was, where the rings were.
So the glass is shattering ... and they were just throwing stuff into a bag. People were running out the emergency exits...It was just absolute chaos."
Captain Aaron Ponce said the trio took a major amount of jewelry from the case and when they ran out of the store they fled to what appeared to be a silver Mercedes with paper plates reading "Keyes auto".
The LAPD says the vehicle was later spotted on a neighboring street and did not provide further information.