West L.A. Merchant Had Guns Ready in Shoot-Out

When it came to security, Lance E. Thomas left nothing to chance. Wherever he maneuvered near the glass display counter of his West Los Angeles watch renovation shop, there was a gun within reach.

Merchants who visited Thomas regularly at his shop, the Watch Company, would watch in awe as he removed the weapons from their hiding spots--a .357 magnum handgun, a Smith & Wesson .38, a shotgun and other guns.

The guns were among seven weapons found by police investigators on the blood-smeared floor of Thomas’ shop after a furious Monday night shoot-out at close range that left the owner seriously wounded and two assailants dead. Two other armed robbers fled the scene before police arrived.

Investigators said Tuesday that Thomas’ role in the shoot-out appeared to be justified. “He’s just somebody who is not going to put up with being robbed,” said John Rockwood, a Los Angeles Police Department detective. “He was just trying to protect his property.”

Said one admiring witness of Thomas’ coolness during the shoot-out: “If somebody’s trying to kill you, you can roll over and die or fight back.”

Besides his guns, Thomas’ only other line of defense was a door lock that opened only when Thomas pushed a buzzer. That lock apparently was broken on Monday, friends said.

According to police, two men walked into the store about 7 p.m. One man displayed an Uzi-style semi-automatic handgun while the other drew a pistol.

“Give it up,” one of the gunmen was said to have told Thomas.

One eyewitness said there were at least four people in the store when the gunmen invaded it. In one police account, detectives reported that one of the gunmen pointed a weapon at the head of a woman customer and threatened to kill her.

Thomas pulled out a gun from one of his hiding spots and opened fire, police said. At least a dozen shots ripped through the store before Thomas and the two assailants stopped firing, Rockwood said.

Thomas was hit once in the neck and three times in the shoulder, officials said.

LAPD Lt. Ronald Hall said that in the confusion, one part-time store employee ran toward the back of the store yelling, “Robbery! Robbery!” Outside the store, at a nearby bus stop, people ran screaming from the intersection when they heard the shots. Customers at a burrito stand across the street dived over the counter to take cover.

Two other assailants waited outside during the attack. One woman, who watched the men run west to their car on Santa Monica Boulevard, said: “They were in such a hurry, one of them almost got hit by a car.” Witnesses said the two jumped into a beige car and drove off.

In the minutes after the shoot-out, Thomas, bleeding, was seen by a video clerk from across the street talking with police on the telephone. His gun was still in his hand.

It was not the first time Thomas had fired his weapons at an intruder in his store in the 12100 block of Santa Monica Boulevard.

Four months earlier, Thomas had wounded another gun-wielding suspect during a botched robbery attempt, police said.

“He knew one of these days that somebody was going to rob his place,” said Tavi Castor, who owns a printer’s shop a few doors away from from Thomas’ store.

Only minutes before his store was invaded Monday night, Thomas had displayed his guns to a friend, coin dealer Beverly Denmark, telling her that he kept them in the store, loaded, because “it’s getting weird around here.”

Thomas, 49, was recuperating Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center. Hospital spokesman Mike Byrne said Thomas was in fair condition.

Four bystanders who were also in the shop when the two armed assailants burst through the front door were unhurt during the furious exchange of gunfire, police said.

Police would not release the names of the two men shot and killed by Thomas during the gun battle, saying that detectives were still trying to contact their families. The men were in their 20s, investigators said. One appeared to have been armed with a 9-millimeter Uzi-style pistol, the other with a small-caliber semiautomatic handgun, detectives said. Both were dead by the time police arrived.

Watch dealers said Thomas is well known among vintage timepiece collectors, particularly those who value prewar models such as Elgins, Walthams and Gruens. A former IBM salesman, Thomas started a vintage watch business in Westwood in 1974, later moving to his West Los Angeles address.

Among his peers, Thomas is acknowledged to be one of the first to recognize the financial possibilities of old American watches. In an interview earlier this year, Thomas told of selling watches that ranged in price from a $99 gold-filled 1947 Elgin to a $29,000, 18-karat-gold, “moon face” 1955 Patek Philippe.

Thomas was also known to his colleagues as “a tough, mean guy,” said Sig Shonholtz, owner of the Second Time Around Watch Company. “He’s pretty independent. You can’t tell him what to do.”

Despite Thomas’ reputation for successfully selling antique watches, it was the more modern and popular Rolex watches he sold that may have been the lure for armed robbers.

“They are really popular now (as robbery targets),” said Detective Rockwood. “Jewelry store robberies seem to be popular.”

One antique watch dealer said Tuesday that several dealers spoke by telephone after the robbery. All of them fear that they could be the next targets, the dealer said.

Thomas, acquaintances said, was well aware of the dangers his expensive watches might bring. Often, when Tavi Castor visited, Thomas would jokingly unveil one of his guns with a flourish and say, “Don’t try to rob me.”

Thomas once boasted that he would have nothing to do with security guards, a costly precaution he considered unnecessary. “There are no employees, no security guards, no trendy address,” he said in a recent interview with L.A. West magazine. “And I refuse to hire any underpaid, ignorant and indignant help. That’s how I keep my costs and overhead down.”

Thomas was first forced to use a gun Aug. 10, when an armed suspect tried to hold him up in the store. According to LAPD Detective Ron Phillips, the suspect barged into the shop, knocking a customer unconscious.

Thomas then shot the suspect in the face. He fled, but was arrested an hour after the incident at Cedars Sinai Hospital. Police later charged Shawn Livingston, 20, of Los Angeles, with robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. The case has not come to trial, officials said.

Afterward, Castor said, Thomas was “not even upset” about the robbery attempt. “Lance is quick,” he said. “He is the fastest gun alive.”

Times staff writers Stephen Braun and Hector Tobar contributed to this story.