4 Arrested in Heist of Jewelry Courier

Four people were arrested in connection with a Tustin jewelry courier heist Tuesday that ended when the alleged bandits crashed into a brick wall and tried to flee on foot, while another car got away with about $1 million in jewelry, police said.

Louis Manuel Gamboa, 34, Julio Lopez Rodriguez, 44, Maria de Carmen Sanchez, 42, and Carlos Perez Lopez, 30, all of Los Angeles, were arrested after residents in a Bryan Avenue neighborhood called police to say they heard people running through their yards.

They are suspected of holding up a courier who stopped at a gas station about 5:20 p.m. after making a pickup at a local jewelry store.

Police said one of the suspects grabbed the jewels while the courier was inside the gas station paying. Before the suspects drove off in a minivan, one suspect passed the jewels to someone in another car nearby, police said.

The two vehicles fled as the courier followed the minivan north on Red Hill Avenue. The minivan, which swerved several times in an apparent effort to shake the courier, crashed into a wall at Bryan and Red Hill avenues, police said. The other vehicle headed east on San Juan Street.

The suspects in the minivan were captured and booked at Orange County Jail on suspicion of conspiracy to commit grand theft. Police said Gamboa, suspected of similar thefts, had $1.2 million in warrants for his arrest. Rodriguez also had a no-bail, grand theft warrant for similar jewelry courier thefts, police said.