Gunmen Rob Jewelry Store, Escape In U-Haul

Broad daylight didn't intimidate the robbers behind a dangerous jewelry store holdup in Mount Dora's historic downtown Friday morning. Around 10:00am, gunmen walked into the Gold In Art Jewelers and ordered employees and customers to the ground.

The robbery happened in the middle of the historic shopping district and City Hall is just a block away. Investigators said there were dozens of people around.

The sidewalks of downtown Mount Dora are always full of shoppers on a Friday morning, but on this day, the crowd included two armed robbers.

"I saw the owner running behind them and he kind of peeked around the corner. That's when I knew they had weapons on them. They had to," witness Edward Wilhelm said.

Police said the men dressed in black, one of them wearing a paintball mask, held up the jewelry store. Several customers and employees were in the store and ordered to their knees when the guns were drawn.

"Said, ‘This is a robbery, everybody on the floor,’" an employee who didn’t want to be identified said.

Detectives said the bandits scooped up what they could and were out in less than two minutes, back into the busy street where nobody stopped them.

"I've seen it happen before, a civilian grabs a guy and takes him down. But if a guy's got a gun, sometimes it's not safe," tourist Bill Parham said.

The crooks then ran into an alley a block over, where they had parked their getaway car.

"White Chevy U-Haul with a western mural on the side. Arizona plates," Lt. Robert Bell of the Mount Dora Police Department said.

The robbers left behind some rubber when the peeled out. Shop owners, customers, tourists, even police said they cannot believe it could happen in one of Central Florida’s busiest shopping districts.

"It freaked me out. I haven't seen that happen in a long time, actually. Downtown Mount Dora," Edward Wilhelm said.

Police said the last armed robbery in the downtown shopping area was 10 years ago. Nobody was hurt in the hold-up.