Detectives with the King County Sheriff's Office are asking the public for any witnesses who may have seen an organized diamond robbery in SeaTac Tuesday -- which may have looked like a car accident to people passing by.
Detectives believe the heist is related to two other similar robberies of diamond couriers in Bellevue and Kirkland, within the past few months.
According to deputies, before noon the victims were driving a black Nissan four-door on the northbound onramp to Interstate 5 at South 188 Street when a black four-door passenger car cut them off and stopped in front of them. Then another vehicle struck the victims' vehicle from behind.
Two masked men wearing sunglasses approached the victims' car, broke two windows, assaulted the driver and took a bag containing over $400,000 in diamonds.
The suspects then fled in the black car.
"These guys were professionals, they knew what they were doing," said Sgt. Cindi West with the King County Sheriff's office. "They clearly had it planned out."
Deputies say a witness told police a third suspect stayed near the suspect vehicle and pointed a handgun at the victims while the others robbed them. Before the suspects fled, they punctured the tires on the victim's car.
The suspect vehicle is described as a black, newer model four-door, possibly a BMW or Mercedes. The suspects were all described as wearing black clothing, including hooded jackets, masks and sunglasses.
The victims believe the suspects were white men because they could see their foreheads during the robbery.
The victims are employed as diamond couriers and were in town from Hong Kong selling diamonds.
In October of 1996, KIRO 7 covered the biggest diamond heist in the area's history. Outside the Bellevue Square Mall, armed masked men took diamonds likely worth a million dollars on today's market from couriers, and flattened the tires.
In the diamond robberies in Bellevue and Kirkland, victims were wedged-in by two vehicles, before armed masked men broke the windows of the victims' car, and flattened the tires.
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