Jewels Seized in Arrest of Pair May Be From 50 Burglaries

The arrests of two women at a North Hollywood hotel resulted in the seizure of several boxes and bags of jewelry believed to be the loot from as many as 50 San Fernando Valley burglaries, Los Angeles police said Saturday.

Detectives began sorting through hundreds of pieces of jewelry Thursday night after Ronna Trujillo, 34, and Gricel Paz, 26, were arrested on suspicion of burglary. By Saturday, some pieces of the jewelry had been connected to eight recent burglaries, Sgt. Chuck Wampler said.

“A lot of this is very nice property that people lost,” Wampler said. “We think we have at least 50 burglaries here.”

Wampler said the effort to trace the several hundred remaining pieces of jewelry--including diamonds, antique watches and gold class rings--to specific burglaries will continue this week. He said an estimate of the value of the seizure had not been made.

The Los Angeles County district attorney will decide if charges in addition to burglary will be filed against Trujillo and Paz, Wampler said. The two women were being held without bail Saturday at Van Nuys Jail, because each had been sought for parole violations, he said.

The arrests were made shortly before midnight Thursday while Wampler was patrolling the parking lot of the Magnolia Motor Hotel on Magnolia Boulevard at Riverton Avenue.

When Wampler ran a computer check on the license plate of a 1982 Pontiac, he learned the car was believed to have been used during a burglary in Van Nuys a week earlier. Wampler entered the hotel and found that the person using the car was staying in Room 7.

Wampler said Trujillo answered the door to Room 7, and he immediately recognized her as a woman wanted for parole violation on a narcotics charge. He then noticed Paz, who said the Pontiac belonged to her.

Wampler said that, as he spoke to the two women, he saw narcotics paraphernalia, three pillowcases stuffed with jewelry and several jewelry boxes.

The women were arrested by Wampler, and the jewelry was turned over to burglary detectives at North Hollywood Division.

Some of the jewelry boxes were empty, but others still contained their owners’ jewelry, Wampler said. One of the pillowcases contained mostly costume jewelry with little financial value.

However, he said, in other bags and boxes, detectives counted 539 valuable pieces of jewelry, including antique rings, pearl necklaces and a Rolex watch.