Valencia Clerk Threatened With Explosion : Robbers Take $150,000 in Jewels

More than $150,000 worth of jewelry was stolen from a Valencia store Friday by a robber who placed a walkie-talkie and a bag of what appeared to be dynamite sticks on a counter and then walked out, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

From outside the Zales store in the 25800 block of McBean Parkway, the robber then used another walkie-talkie to order a startled saleswoman inside to empty jewelry into the bag or he would detonate the explosives, deputies said.

After the saleswoman complied, the robber returned, grabbed the walkie-talkie and the bag, then fled down an alley on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.

No one was hurt.

Deputies said there were no suspects in the 10:45 a.m. holdup at the store in the Granary Square shopping plaza.

Deputies said there were two saleswomen but no customers in the store when the robber walked in and calmly placed the bag containing a package of what looked like six to eight sticks of dynamite in front of one of the women.

“He told the sales clerk the bag contained dynamite” and that he would detonate it if she set off an alarm or did not do as she was told, Deputy Dan Cox said.

“He said he would go outside and direct her over his walkie-talkie which jewelry from the displays to put in the bag,” Cox said. “Believing it was dynamite, she did as she was told.”

Deputies said they did not know whether the bag contained real dynamite sticks because the robber took it.

Deputies initially described the robbers as a white man in his 50s with “salt-and-pepper” hair and a Scandinavian accent, and a Latino in his 30s. However, deputies later said they believed that the men had disguised their appearances.

Authorities did not identify the Zales saleswomen. Employees at the store, which closed for the day after the robbery, declined to comment.

Late Friday, deputies said store officials were still attempting to determine the amount of the loss but that it probably was more than $150,000.

Nearby shopkeepers said they did not notice anything unusual or realize that a robbery had occurred until after the robbers fled.

“I heard the motorcycle speed away and walked out to see what was going on,” said Joyce Bucher, who works at a beauty salon next door to Zales. “I saw one of the girls come out of the jewelry store. I looked at her, and she said, ‘We just got hit.’ I thought, ‘Good grief, this is Valencia; that’s not supposed to happen here.’ ”

Deputies said Great Western Bank in the shopping center was robbed Tuesday morning of an undisclosed amount of cash by a man who appeared to have a gun. No arrest has been made.

Deputies said the two holdups do not appear to be related.