$1 Million in Jewelry Stolen in Hollywood

Two men in black masks and orange hair, one said to have an Irish brogue, tied up and robbed a Hollywood antiques dealer at gunpoint Thursday, escaping with jewelry valued by the owner at $1 million, police said.

The two men entered Dolly’s Don Quixote Antiques at 5011 Hollywood Blvd. shortly after 9 a.m., apparently through a 10-inch opening made by sawing through a hollow metal bar of the rear security door sometime earlier, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Richard A. Legarra, commanding officer of the Northeast Division.

They then taped the bar inconspicuously back in place and waited until owner Dolly Frank arrived to open the store and and unlock the jewelry safes.

Both robbers were wearing black jump suits and Halloween masks, he said. There were no witnesses, and the proprietor was uninjured.

Frank was hit on the head with a gun and bound with tape by one man, while the other filled a duffel bag with about 2,000 items, according to Frank’s husband, Jack, who arrived at the store soon after the robbery. His wife had managed to free herself and push an alarm button.

He said his wife, who was still visibly upset and dabbing at her eyes hours after the robbery, had feared for her life. Surprised by the robbers, she had begun screaming, he said, but was stunned by a blow with the gun--thought to be a blue .38-caliber revolver equipped with a silencer.

Neighbors living in apartments upstairs and behind the store and laborers working nearby said they did not see or hear anything suspicious. Frank had beefed up security at the store--installing a burglar alarm and double doors--after a similar robbery in 1979, involving jewelry valued at $500,000.