13 Rare Hermès Handbags Worth $1M Snatched in Overnight Smash-and-Grab at Florida Store

Thirteen one-of-a-kind Hermès handbags were reported stolen from a store in Florida earlier this month after the window fronting the display was smashed in the middle of the night, according to WPTV in West Palm Beach.

The bags are valued at about $1 million, Virgil Rogers, owner of the Only Authentics store, told the TV station.

Rogers said the robbery took place the night of Dec. 14, when a window displaying the store's collection of 30 years of Hermès and Chanel handbags was smashed, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.

Eight Birkin and five Kelly bags were stolen, with several valued at over $100,000 apiece, Rogers said. Only Authentics has two Hermès Birkin bags on its website listed for $480,000, with most Birkins priced from $17,000 to $90,000, the Daily News reported.

Hermès bags are typically made from alligator, cow or ostrich leather, among other materials, and those who want to purchase a bag directly from the website join a waiting list that can take years, according to the Daily News.

A store employee told the newspaper that the most expensive items stolen were a green crocodile-skin Kelly bag listed at $89,000, and a Vert Bosphore Birkin handbag worth $110,000.

Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Miami, told WPTV the thefts were likely the work of organized criminals.

"It just shows you they don't care, and they have it such that they have this down to the second. I've got x amount of seconds to get in there. I have a car waiting for me down on the street, and there's probably another car two streets from there that it's going to be loaded on, loaded off, loaded on, loaded off," Piquero said.

Over the past two months, there have been a series of smash-and-grab burglaries at luxury stores around the U.S.

Thieves rushed into a Southern California Nordstrom store the night before Thanksgiving and ran off with pricey goods. Around the same time, groups of thieves smashed glass cases and window displays and ransacked high-end stores throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, stealing jewelry, sunglasses, suitcases and other merchandise.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.