Armed Robbers Bind UPS Driver, Steal Jewelry Cargo

Two men bounded through the open door of a UPS van at a halt Thursday, put a gun to the driver’s head and swathed him in duct tape before making off with $70,000 to $90,000 worth of gold jewelry, police said.

After picking up his last load of the day at a Van Nuys jewelry distributor, the driver was headed back to the United Parcel Service center in Van Nuys when a white pickup truck in front of him slowed down, said Detective Greg Demirjian of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

When the pickup halted at a stop sign near Van Nuys Airport and the UPS van rolled up behind it, two men who had been waiting on the corner rushed through the van’s open door, one with a 9-millimeter handgun.

After binding the driver with tape, the bandits asked him where the gold jewelry was located, Demirjian said. When the driver told them, one robber began gathering the valuables while the other drove the van.

A few minutes later, the robbers stopped the vehicle in an alley in the 16000 block of Victory Boulevard and fled, Demirjian said. The driver, unharmed, was able to free himself of the tape and called police.

The robbers were described as African Americans 20 to 24 years old, 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall and weighing about 150 pounds. They were wearing sweat clothes. The driver of the white pickup is also wanted, Demirjian said.

A UPS van was robbed last year after making a pickup from the same jewelry distributor, Demirjian said. They were not caught but do not match the descriptions of the suspects in Thursday’s robbery, he said.