It's about 5:00 in the morning on November 19th, 2007.
A small group of men approach the front door of the Maharaja Jewelry Store in the grand panama shopping center.

In seconds they smash-out the glass then clean-out the display cases. The whole job took a little more than 1-minute.
But it's taken Manu Samtani almost 10-months to recover.

"Well it feels great to be back open after these months of struggling with what went on," Samtani, Owner of Maharaja's said.

Samtani took a double hit that day. After burglarizing his beach store, the gang then drove to Gulf Jewelry near the corner of Highway 98 and Thomas Drive, then broke into Samtani's other Maharaja store on 23rd street in Panama City.

The total take was about 1 and a half million dollars, and the 3-crimes all took place within 45-minutes.

Panama City police arrested one of the suspects fleeing from the last smash 'n grab. But 31-year-old Maurice Robinson wasn't charged until this past April.

Investigators believe Robinson is part of a ring of about 30 people based in the Miami area who've been pulling these smash n' grab burglaries all over the southeast.

Authorities from Panama City Beach and Panama City are working closely with federal investigators to help solve the high-priced heist. And the owner wants the thieves caught.

"Definitely, we need to get them off the streets so no one else suffers like we had to," Samtini said.

"We do continue to work it and hopefully bring more people to justice in this case," Major Dave Humphreys, of the Panama City Beach Police Department said.

Thursday, Samtani held a grand reopening of his grand panama location. He's hoping this Christmas season will be better than last year.

Investigators also linked Robinson to a smash and grab jewelry burglaries in Marianna and Dothan. They say slowly but surely, members of the ring are being arrested all across the southeast.