ORANGE : Jeweler Routs Three Would-Be Robbers

A jewelry store owner exchanged gunfire with gunmen who stormed his shop at the Town and Country shopping center Thursday, police said.

Shortly before noon, a woman entered Deckers Custom Jewelers D at 777 S. Main St. and browsed about five minutes, Sgt. Art Romo said. As she walked out, he said, the woman held the door open, and three men wearing stocking caps and raincoats ran in.

One of the gunmen fired two bullets at a back wall and the other two followed, carrying a sledgehammer and pillowcases, Romo said.

The owner, John Feliciano, 52, said he heard his wife, Joyce, scream and he and came out of the back room and shot back at the would-be robbers. He fired toward the floor, he said, to avoid hiting anyone outside. There were no customers in the store Thursday, police said.

The gunmen fled the store unharmed and empty-handed, police said, leaving behind the sledgehammer and pillowcases. The gunmen sped off in a gray Toyota Corolla and were last seen heading east on the Garden Grove Freeway.

Romo said the attempted robbery may be linked to five jewelry store thefts in Orange County in which retailers have lost at least $1.45 million since Feb. 1.

“As many as we’re having, I think they are all somehow connected or copycatted from the different groups,” he said.

Feliciano said he and his wife “worked too hard to get where we’re at. I am not going to let someone come in and take it away.”