With tiny hands and heads that don’t come up much higher than a store’s counter, sure, kids are kind of the perfect size for making mischief at a jewelry store. But cops in St. Louis say a 6- and an 8-year-old weren’t playing “Swipe the Necklace” on their own — but that their very own mother set her children on the path to lawbreaking in a $100,000 jewelry heist.

KTVI News says the woman worked at distracting store employees in the middle of the day, all while she was busy blocking the view of her children. The kids would then go behind counters with bags and pilfer jewelry on the sly.

Officials say the children grabbed 69 boxes, for a total of $100,000 worth of jewelry.

“We had some people come in here and decided to take it upon themselves to take a lot of jewelry that wasn’t theirs. The woman was basically blocking his view so the kids could do what she told them to do,” said one store employee. “She would hand them her purse, and they would take the purse go back there and you can see their little hands going in and grabbing jewelry.”

Apparently a family member noticed the merchandise and reported it, but thus far only $10,000 worth of loot has been recovered. The woman is currently on the run, say cops.

*Thanks for the tip, Joe!

Police: Mom gets kids to pull off $100,000 jewelry heist [KTVI.com]

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