Police Link Jewel Thefts, Robberies; 3 Suspects Nabbed

From last spring through this fall, local police became increasingly concerned as two separate crime sprees hit the South Bay.

Masked gunman toting pistols and a sawed-off shotgun had stolen $44,500 from seven area restaurants. And sophisticated burglars had disabled alarms, tunneled through walls and stolen more than $200,000 in jewels and precious metals from eight merchants.

The two sprees seemed unconnected. Police said they were baffled because the thieves were skilled professionals who left few clues.

However, last month, the thieves themselves were victimized by a break-in at a storage locker, and it was there that police say they made the first connection between the two cases, leading to the arrest of three suspects.

Charged last month with receiving about $25,000 in gems allegedly stolen from Luis Jewelers in Torrance, the last in the string of burglaries, were Michael Wayne Petersen, 25, of Redondo Beach and Kelly Jane Glouner, 26, of Lomita. Both pleaded not guilty. Petersen was held on $25,000 bail and Glouner released on her own recognizance.

Petersen has also been arrested, along with his brother Thomas, on suspicion of stealing a total of nearly $30,000 from two Torrance restaurants and a Redondo Beach restaurant.

Torrance police--who led the investigations because five of the jewelry heists and four of the restaurant robberies took place in the city--say they are trying to gather evidence to connect the suspects and the two crime sprees.

“We are confident the suspects . . . are responsible for some or all of the robberies and burglaries,” Torrance police Lt. Jim Papst said Thursday.

Police say the first indication that the two crime sprees may be linked came Dec. 13, when Patrolman Pat Shortall investigated a burglary at Public Storage on Lomita Boulevard. A locker there had been pried open but still contained jewels and a .45 caliber pistol, a sawed-off shotgun and stockings that Shortall guessed might be connected with the masked restaurant robbers.

Police said employees from Luis Jewelers later identified the jewels, valued at $20,000, as some of the items stolen from their store three weeks earlier.

Glouner and Michael Petersen were connected to the storage locker through rental papers, police said, adding that they can show that the pistol in the locker belongs to Petersen.

“We said, ‘Hey, we might not only have our jewelry burglars, but our restaurant robbers,” said Papst.

Detectives then searched Glouner’s apartment in Lomita and Petersen’s in Redondo Beach and found more jewelry, Papst said.

A ballistics test indicated that the pistol recovered from the storage locker was the same one fired by robbers on Nov. 9 when they stole $23,000 from Hof’s Hut in Torrance, Papst said.

One robber had fired a warning shot after a restaurant employee resisted the theft. “They fired a shot there,” said Papst. “They shouldn’t have done that.”

Police said they bolstered their case when restaurant employees identified pictures of both Michael Petersen and Thomas Petersen, 30, of Redondo Beach, as the men who robbed them. Employees connected the brothers to robberies at Hof’s Hut, TGI Friday’s in Torrance and Chicago Ribs in Redondo Beach.

“Typically, you never get a connection between these two types of crimes,” said Sgt. Emilio Paerels. “The kind of people who will go in and rob people with a gun are usually much more brazen and bold and less intelligent than people who work out a sophisticated plan to commit a burglary.”