Masked gunmen hit 2nd downtown San Francisco jewelry store

The shuttered doors of Tiffany & Co. in the Westfield Mall in San Francisco, Ca. as seen on Wednesday Feb. 4, 2015, after an afternoon armed robbery took place inside. A second jewelry store, this time on the 500 block of Sutter near Union Square, was robbed by armed gunmen on Friday Feb. 6, 2015. less The shuttered doors of Tiffany & Co. in the Westfield Mall in San Francisco, Ca. as seen on Wednesday Feb. 4, 2015, after an afternoon armed robbery took place inside. A second jewelry store, this time on ... more Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Masked gunmen hit 2nd downtown San Francisco jewelry store 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

High-end jewelry thieves struck in downtown San Francisco again late last week, just two days after a brazen midday robbery of a Tiffany & Co. store in the Westfield shopping center, police said.

Around 11:30 a.m. Friday, three men with handguns stormed into a jewelry store on the 500 block of Sutter Street, about a block from Union Square.

The robbers, identified only as men because their faces were covered, ordered everyone in the store to the ground before rifling through the jewelry cases and making off with an undisclosed haul, said Sgt. Monica MacDonald, a police spokeswoman.

Two days earlier, three masked suspects burst into Tiffany & Co. on Market Street and ordered customers to the floor at gunpoint. The suspects forced one of the store’s employees to open jewelry cases before fleeing, MacDonald said.

Though the two robberies were similar — both committed midday by three masked men with handguns in the downtown area — MacDonald said there was no evidence they were related.

“These two definitely stand out in the way they were committed, being during business hours,” she said. “But they are being investigated as separate incidents.”

MacDonald said investigators would, however, share notes and communicate in case any leads overlap.

Police asked anyone with information about either crime to call an anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444.