Flat Tire Precedes Armed Robbery of Jewelry Dealer

A Los Angeles jewelry dealer was robbed at gunpoint of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewels Monday after he stepped out of his car to check on a flat tire here, police said.

Akop Azarian, 31, was driving south on the Santa Ana Freeway about 11:30 a.m. when he noticed something wrong with his front tire and exited the freeway at Beach Boulevard, Police Sgt. Lloyd Schwengel said. As Azarian checked his tires, a man in his 30s stopped to ask if he needed help.

“The victim said that he has AAA and already was getting help,” Schwengel said. “Then the man went back to his car and got a gun, a small-caliber handgun.”

The assailant held Azarian while a woman in her 20s took the car keys from the businessman and stole two cases of jewelry, Schwengel said.

“There’s a good possibility that they set him up and followed him from Los Angeles,” Schwengel said.

The male was described as Latino, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 170 to 180 pounds. The woman was described as white, blond and also about 5-foot-8. They were in a four-door, white Honda.