The investigation continues into the armed robbery of the Colonial Jewelers store at 1 South Market Street in downtown Frederick Tuesday afternoon.

Police say three individuals armed with handguns and wearing masks entered the store. They took some items and fled.

Before leaving, the suspects sprayed the store with pepper spray. Ten people inside at the time were affected by the pepper spray, and were treated at the scene. No one was transported to the hospital, according to Lt. Clark Pennington with the Frederick Police.

"Pepper spray is an irritant. So by breathing the pepper spray, it irritates your lungs, causing you to cough. It activates you mucus membranes, causing your nose to run. If it gets in your eyes, it causes your eyes to close. This was not directly sprayed at the employees, but it was sprayed inside the store, thus affecting their lungs, making them cough," he says.

Police say the individuals were seen getting into either a black pickup or dark colored SUV. The vehicle was seen heading north on North Market Street.

Police Chief Tom Ledwell was on the scene, and he says a lookout was broadcast. "We got information out to our surrounding agencies. And we have some other electronic means that we can track if somebody comes into contact with the tag, or it goes past one of the LPR's {License Plate Readers}," he says. "So there's a pretty big net put out right now."

Lt. Pennington notes that this robbery is very similar to one which happened recently in at Pentagon City in Virginia. "We have the reports that it happened in Pentagon City, or something similar to this," he says. "We're going to look at Pentagon City's information, see what they were able to develop and then compare that to our case. And if they are related, then we'll work with the police department down there, and coordinate our efforts, if possible."

The Zales Jewelry Store at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City was robbed Monday morning by four men wearing hoodies. They used  hammers to smash several jewelry cases and got away with $130,000 worth of jewelry, according to a story post on WJLA-TV's website.

While Frederick Police were investigating the Colonial Jewelers robbery, they closed off West Patrick Street between Market and Court Streets.

A number of residents noticed the police activity, and had a few comments. One man named Jeff said he was driving around looking for a place to park when he saw all the police activity. He said it was quite daring for anyone to rob the Colonial Jewelers store during the daylight hours in downtown Frederick. "I just think people are getting very brave, robbing this. I hope they 'em so it doesn't happen anywhere else," Jeff said.

Kimberly lives on North Market Street, and came out to see what was going on. "This is pretty wild, how much traffic and how much they've stopped the streets, and these guys have been gone an hour," she said. "They {the police} got to investigate, though."