5 Held Hostage in Beverly Hills Jewelry Store

A robber armed with a handgun held five employees of an exclusive Beverly Hills jewelry store hostage Monday while a team of law enforcement officers stationed outside attempted to negotiate with him.

The gunman, identifying himself only as “John,” claimed by telephone to have stabbed to death one of his captives, the security guard at the Van Cleef & Arpels Inc. jewelry store at 300 N. Rodeo Drive. Two hostages inside the store confirmed by telephone that the security man had been slain.

Police, however, would not verify that a murder had occurred.

“Our feeling is we haven’t had any injuries, but there is a lot of conflicting information,” Beverly Hills police Lt. Bill Hunt said.

Conversation Cited

Beverly Hills Police Chief Marvin Iannone added that he also did not believe the robber had injured anyone, because of what the gunman had said to law officers throughout the day.

“I’m not going to say any more,” Iannone said.

At least 50 police officers and sheriff’s deputies, many armed with machine guns, converged outside the store shortly after 10 a.m., when a silent alarm was tripped off, police said. Officers said the gunman apparently was caught by surprise when police appeared.

Police negotiated with the robber by telephone, at approximatedly 15 minute intervals, throughout the day and reported he had made a “variety of demands.” They did not elaborate. Officers said they also spoke to several of the hostages.

Shortly after 3:30 p.m., police, using handheld bullet-proof barriers, left bags containing bread, bologna and cold drinks outside the store’s front door at the request of the gunman.

“Hopefully, something will happen out of that, something of a positive nature,” Hunt said. “We’re hoping that will ease things up.”

At mid-afternoon, the robber reportedly telephoned the KTLA Channel 5 television newsroom and requested that a news crew be sent to interview him and a television monitor provided so that he could review what was taking place outside the store. He told the televison station he attempted to rob the store because he thought the jeweler once had sold him fake jewelry “a long time ago.”

Police, however, denied his request for television coverage.

“We won’t be having any TV crews going in there,” Hunt said.

SWAT Team Called In

In addition to Beverly Hills police, special-weapons teams from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department were on the scene.

The hostage episode apparently began when the man’s attempt to rob the store failed.

“My intention was to take the jewelry and leave with nobody hurt,” the man told United Press International by telephone. “It didn’t work out that way.”

He said he took the hostages--three men and two women--when he saw police pull up. He claimed to have subseqently stabbed the security guard, because “the man was talking back to me . . . I asked him to keep his mouth shut. He failed to obey my orders.”

Two hostages, the store’s general manager Hugh Skinner and saleswoman Ann Halperin reportedly verified the gunman’s account to news agencies in telephone calls.

Heard Screaming

Julie Stipkovich, a bookeeper for the store, was working in a basement office when she heard the gunman enter.

“I heard him screaming at everyone to get on the floor,” she recalled.

Stipkovich said customers normally must ring a buzzer to enter the lcoked front door of the store.

“We just heard a lot of yelling and we got out of there as quickly as possible,” said jeweler Jose Castillo, who was working upstairs when the gunman entered. “A saleslady ran up and said there was a robbing going on.”

In addition to Halperin and Skinner, Castillo said those inside the store included the armed security guard, a porter and another saleswoman. “Everyone is accounted for except them,” he said.

Police said 12 to 15 employees escaped as the gunman entered.

Streets Barricaded

Streets around the exclusive Rodeo Drive shop, including nearby Wilshire Boulevard, were closed to traffic throughout the day, resulting in a massive traffic jam that only grew worse as the evening rush hour began. Customers and employees were evacuated from a string of neighboring stores and barricades were set up to keep sightseers away.

But at 4:30 p.m., a bearded man clad only in blue running shorts ran past the barriers and headed toward the store. Police gave chase and took him into custody with his hands bound behind his back.

“He’s not the suspect,” sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Tellez said of the unidentified man . “He just decided on his own to go down there.”

The man was detained for questioning.

The jewelry store has one of the most prestigious addresses in Los Angeles. But on Monday, the area around it looked more like a war zone. Helicopters buzzed overhead, including a blue and white sheriff’s chopper, which repeatedly swooped low over the scene.

Police All Over

“Police are all over the place,” said Hildegard Coghlan, the manager of Giorgio Inc., a boutique across the street from Van Cleef & Arpels. “They are under cars, down the side streets, behind cars, behind posts and standing in doorways.”

Some officers were even seen peering up from manholes.

Coghlan said the 10 or 12 customers inside Giogio’s when the hostage situation began were herded out a rear entrance. Employees were taken to the windowless second floor, out of sight of the huge plate glass windows that face Van Cleef & Arpels.

“If a person from inside shoots, it would go into our building,” she said.

Edwar, of the exclusive Jewels by Edwar store, was working in his front display window when he saw “police come speeding up to the corner of Van Cleef.”

Manager Ran Out

Edwar said he saw the store manager run out shortly after 10 a.m., followed a few minutes later by several sales people.

“Maybe we should leave, too,” he said. “But it is kind of exciting. Besides, we’re all bulletproofed and guarded here.”

Some merchants, however, complained that the seige was costing them money.

“I may be losing up to $4,000 in business in the last two hours,” said Leonard Browne, manager of Bernini, a men’s clothier. “Customers are calling, asking how to get into the store or where to park. This has brought everything to a standstill.”

George Stellweg, the director of the Upstairs Gallery, complained that he was forced to miss an appoinment to sell a $60,000 painting.

Throughout the area, elaborate security systems are common to the jewelry stores that dazzle passersby with their displays of fabulous gems. Some shops in the area require customers to enter a small anteroom and announce their reason for coming before they are admitted. Others show jewels by appointment only. Some are so exclusive they have unlisted numbers.

“We all face something like this happening,” Edwar said.

Last August, an estimated $250,000 in jewelry was stolen from a jewelry shop at the luxurious Beverly Wilshire Hotel by four armed bandits.

Staff writer Mathis Chazanov contributed to this article.