“Jewelry robbers and copycats follow pattern”

Jewelry robbers and copycats follow pattern

Posted: 27 Dec 2010 05:59 PM PST

Despite more than a dozen arrests, gangs of well-coordinated jewelry thieves continue to strike across Southern California, including high-profile robberies in Santa Ana, Fullerton, Brea, Placentia and Anaheim.

A recent smash-and-grab robbery at a Santa Ana jewelry kiosk tucked within an indoor shopping mall was the latest in a nearly identical series of highly coordinated incidents.

A group of eight men wearing hooded sweat shirts, their faces covered in masks, raced into Sandoval Jewelry just after 5 p.m. Dec. 19, with several of the men breaking display cases as others followed, scooping up handfuls of merchandise. Less than a minute later, the men had fled in two cars, taking a reported $300,000 worth of jewelry with them.

The suspects, who police described as Hispanic men in the late-teens and 20s, are believed to have also carried out robberies in Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga. But investigators describe them as a copy-cat crew emulating a larger series of jewelry robberies carried out by groups of black gang members from Los Angeles County.

"We've seen takeover bank robberies, but I've never seen it to where they are targeting jewelry stores like this, at least not in Orange County," Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

The first Orange County robbery in the series took place Sept. 11 at Marques Jewelry Store on Yorba Linda Boulevard, police said.

As one man stayed in the customer area as a lookout, the other hurdled over a display case, walked into a back area where the father and son owners were working and stole an undetermined amount of cash, Placentia police detective Bryce Angel said. The two men fled before stealing jewelry after seeing someone outside the business on a cell phone, Angel said.

Authorities believe the same two men, as well as a third accomplice, struck next at Forever Fine Jewelry on East Imperial Highway in Brea about 11:30 a.m. Oct. 6. The three men walked in with handguns, yelled at clerks and a customer who walked in mid-robbery and left with jewelry and cash after pistol-whipping one of the employees.

One of the men suspected in the first two robberies, Anthony Grisby, was caught by a Los Angeles Police Department gang unit the day of the Brea robbery and turned over to the Placentia Police Department. A second suspect, Frank Meadows, was arrested about three weeks ago during another robbery in Los Angeles, Angel said.

Shortly after the Brea robbery, the crew switched to the now-familiar smash-and-grab robberies.

Just after noon Oct. 8, three men ran into Valencia Jewelers in the 200 block of West Fourth Street in Santa Ana, smashing a 20-foot-long display case and taking as much jewelry as they could carry. A second downtown Santa Ana jewelry robbery took place during the noontime hour Oct. 14, when three men carried out an identical robbery at Don Roberto Jewelers in the 400 block of East First Street.

On Oct. 21, the robberies hit Fullerton, where a group of six men struck at the Fullerton Jewelry Mart on Harbor Boulevard just before 5 p.m., smashing display cases and grabbing merchandise as employees threw stools at them. Three men believed to be involved in the robbery were arrested hours later in Santa Fe Springs after authorities recovered a stolen vehicle believed to have been used as a getaway car.

On Oct. 30, three men tried to carry out a smash-and-grab robbery at a jewelry vendor in the Anaheim Market Place but were stymied by heavily fortified glass on the display cases and fled as security guards began heading their way.

"It is very quick," Bertagna said. "It seems like a practiced routine, and they stick to it. It is a well-organized group of individuals committing these crimes."

According to police, the same crew is believed to be behind jewelry robberies in Pasadena, where four were arrested, Glendale, where two were arrested, San Gabriel, El Monte, Huntington Park and Norco.

"They are just substituting their crew members if they get arrested," Angel said.

In some cases, particularly the Santa Ana robberies, the robbers seem to be targeting gold jewelry.

Authorities say the speed with which the robberies are carried out make suspects difficult to catch. Investigators have released surveillance footage from several of the incidents, hoping that someone will recognize them or their mannerism.

The robberies have largely taken place near major freeways, with authorities speculating that robbers are hitting such a large area in hopes that it will make them harder to track down.

"If I'm thinking like a criminal, I would think it is easier to not be detected or get away. But it didn't throw us off here," Brea police Sgt. Bill Smyser said. "The networking for law enforcement is greater than people think."

Contact the writer: 714-796-7939 or semery@ocregister.com

Article

A recent smash-and-grab robbery at a Santa Ana jewelry kiosk tucked within an indoor shopping mall was the latest in a nearly identical series of highly coordinated incidents.

Article

A recent smash-and-grab robbery at a Santa Ana jewelry kiosk tucked within an indoor shopping mall was the latest in a nearly identical series of highly coordinated incidents.

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Jewelry Stores

Tuesday, December 28, 2010