Man Charged With Theft of Jewelry

Patrol officers on a routine assignment at a North Hollywood house arrested a suspected thief after discovering suitcases stuffed with an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 pieces of jewelry, Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

Shifts of burglary detectives and patrol officers spent more than 20 straight hours cataloguing the jewelry after the arrest Monday night of Edmund Sykes, 39, on suspicion of robbery and receiving stolen property.

Police said the jewelry--mostly inexpensive watches, necklaces, earrings and pins--is believed to have come from dozens of burglaries in Los Angeles.

Detectives have connected some of the jewelry to two residential burglaries in the San Fernando Valley and identified Sykes as a suspect in two area robberies, Lt. Ron LaRue said. But investigators have not begun to trace the rest of the jewelry found packed in suitcases in a house in the 7500 block of Irvine Street.

“We are just scratching the surface on the investigation of this,” LaRue said. “There is just a lot of material to go through.”

LaRue said the department will display the jewelry to the public after the initial investigation is completed. He described the jewelry as “not high quality stuff,” but said some pieces might have sentimental value to owners.

The jewelry was found after two patrol officers were called to the Irvine Street house when a man who was moving out asked for police to stand by because he was having a dispute with Sykes, who lives there on and off, LaRue said. Sykes also has a residence in Van Nuys, he said.

Sykes was at the Irvine Street house when the officers arrived, and they noticed that he fit the description of a robbery suspect being sought by police. The officers began questioning Sykes when a third occupant of the house gave them permission to search the interior, LaRue said.

The officers found the jewelry packed into 16 suitcases, LaRue said. No one else was arrested, and the identities of the other occupants were not released.