Orange : Bargain Jewelry May Not Be Golden Opportunity

Beware a door-to-door salesman selling 14-carat gold jewelry at bargain prices, Orange police warned Monday. The stuff may look and feel substantial, but it probably is lead.

Orange Police Detective Jim Carson said several secretaries at businesses in Orange and Garden Grove have been taken in by a man who sells bogus gold jewelry and gold-plated items out of a briefcase.

“Actually, this stuff doesn’t look too bad,” Carson said Monday. “They’re made out of lead, so the weight is right when you hold them in your hand. But when you put them on, the plating comes right off and turns your skin green.”

Jerene Brown, a secretary at Advo System Inc. in the Town & Country shopping center in Orange, told Carson she bought three of the fake chains for $360 on April 5.

The salesman had claimed the three chains were valued at $1,400, Brown said. But when the 37-year-old Huntington Beach resident took them to a jeweler the same day to be appraised, she was told they were worthless.

Carson said Brown was able to stop payment on her check. However, the detective said he has been trying to locate at least six other women who have been bilked by the same man. Carson said he believes the losses in those cases were less than $100 each.

The suspect, described as a slender, clean-shaven Caucasian man in his early 20s, about 6 feet tall and with dark brown hair, tells the women he works for Unique Wholesale Jewelry Co. in Los Angeles. Carson said there is no such company.

Anyone who has bought jewelry from a man matching that description is asked to call Orange police at 532-0219.