50 seconds and gone: Saskatoon jewelry store heist nets thieves gold, diamonds

Arif Ratnani's 50 seconds of terror featured gold, diamonds, masked men, a machete and a hammer.

Ratnani owns Jewels, a store in The Centre Mall in Saskatoon. Around 2 p.m. CST Wednesday, he was alone in the store, settling down behind a counter to eat his lunch orange.

That's when two masked men strolled into the store carrying totes, a hammer and a machete.

They didn't say a word and didn't even acknowledge Ratnani. They just began smashing display cases.

"They chose particular showcases, they might have been here before, this is what I sense," he said in an interview.

"Within a minute, they broke maybe seven glasses and took a lot of jewelry from here, like gold and diamonds."

He ran to a neighbouring store and had someone call 911. Moments later, the two men left the store and walked out a mall exit door. They took off in a Nissan half-ton, he said.

CBC reviewed the security footage from the store. The two men methodically smash cases, dumping trays into tote bags. They do not even look at Ratnani as he runs out of the store, and the camera captures mall shoppers walking by the storefront.

Ratnani is still shaken because, he knows he could have been injured and it appears the store had been staked out by the thieves. He estimates they made off with thousands of dollars in diamonds and gold.

Police say they're investigating.