Police said the man asked to see several pieces of jewelry and at some point pocketed real diamonds and left identical fake ones in their place.
The theft was discovered when the jewels were being locked up at the end of the day, according to the report.
Police said identifying the thief will be difficult because Zales refused to release the surveillance video to investigators.
The thief, who reportedly acted strange and even shaking while in the store, was described as a bearded male, about 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds.
Zales would not talk to us about the incident, but Dawn Rader, gemologist and manager at Tiffany's Jewelers in Xenia, said unfortunately switches do happen and employees are instructed to follow a special protocol when showing stones in the store.
"When people come in we check them out, see who they are," Rader said. "We do check stones and god forbid if they did have something happen we can tell right away."
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