BATON ROUGE - A pair of thieves used a baseball bat to force their way into a jewelry store early Wednesday morning, getting away with over $50,000 in merchandise. 

The East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office said the break-in happened around midnight at P&T Jewelry on Coursey Boulevard. The store's owner watched the crime unfold and contacted the sheriff's office as it was happening. 

Surveillance images caught the two culprits smashing the front entrance open with a bat before they went inside and shattered several glass displays. Apart from the thousands of dollars in merchandise stolen, the thieves also caused about $20,000 in damage. 

"They were breaking display cases and actually scooping up jewelry in a backpack. They did that very quickly within minutes and then fled the area," Casey Hicks, spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Department said. 

The investigation is still ongoing. 

Anyone with information on the crime should contact authorities at 225-389-5064.