Owners of Toluca Lake Jewelry Store Robbed : Crime: Couple is safe after being abducted at their home. Kidnapers take more than $1 million in gems, cash.

The owners of a prominent Toluca Lake jewelry store were kidnaped at gunpoint from their home and forced to drive a pair of ski-masked robbers to the shop before the thieves fled with more than $1 million in jewelry and cash, police said Tuesday.

Van Ohanian, 67, and his wife, Helen, 62, were surprised about 7:30 p.m. Monday by robbers who hid outside the couple’s Toluca Lake home and followed them into the garage, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Ron LaRue.

The robbers ransacked the house while holding the Ohanians at gunpoint and then ordered the couple into their 1989 Mercedes, directing them to drive the few blocks to the family jewelry store, Van Ohanian Jeweler on Riverside Drive, LaRue said.

After forcing Van Ohanian to unlock the store’s safe and cleaning out jewelry display cases, the thieves hustled the couple back into the car and drove a block away, where the gunmen got out and ran away, LaRue said.

“Fortunately no one was harmed,” LaRue said. “If there’s a saving grace, that’s it.”

LaRue said robbery of expensive jewelry is common, particularly around the holiday season. But, he added, he has never before seen this method used. Investigators suspect the robbers had been watching the Ohanian home and shop for some time before they committed the crime.

The day after the robbery, the shop’s display cases were stocked with the few items of jewelry that remained. Friends and neighbors streamed in, offering their condolences to family members and vowing to find ways to tighten security in the area.

The store has been robbed three other times, said the Ohanian’s youngest son, Diron. In fact, Diron said, a thief once pressed the barrel of a gun into the chest of his older brother, Terry--an act that persuaded Diron to find another line of work.

“But this is different,” said Diron, 28, now a lawyer. “This one’s scary, because they came into the house.”

Van Ohanian was questioned by detectives at the store and then returned to his home, shaken. “They really are not in the mental state to deal with this,” Diron Ohanian said of his parents. “They’re really devastated. It’s not just the financial thing--it’s people coming into your home.”

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The Ohanians immigrated to the United States from the Middle East in the 1950s. Penniless, Van Ohanian worked as a jeweler to support the couple’s children. In 1968, the family moved from Michigan to California, hoping to make it big. In time, they bought their own jewelry store in Toluca Lake and worked for 25 years to transform it into a neighborhood fixture.

“He (Van) came here with nothing and built up a family, and saved some money, and opened this place up,” Diron Ohanian said.

He said the store is insured, but did not know how much, if any, of the loss will be covered. “What can you do?” Diron Ohanian asked. His parents are old, he emphasized: “It’s not like with me--I can pick up all the pieces and move on. . . .But they should be able to be comfortable.”