Were they utes???
In this case surprisingly, no. They appear to be either the aforementioned Gypsies, Muslims, or maybe Hispanic (though they look much more like one of the other two). One thing’s for sure: The store staff should have been immediately suspicious since they were definitely a rag tag-looking bunch.
I would bet one of them is (was) a store employee or friends with an employee since they knew exactly where the safe was and how big it was.