Teaming Up Against Jewel Thieves

Jewelry has united them.

Two Orange County prosecutors have been assigned to work with a special Los Angeles Police Department unit to combat a surge in armed robberies by Los Angeles-based jewel thieves, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Lubinski said Monday.

The arrangement is designed to streamline prosecutions once arrests are made, and to help local prosecutors “develop some expertise” in tracking the jewel thieves, he said.

The special unit was formed after undercover members of the Los Angeles Police Violent Crime Special Section began following suspected jewel thieves into Orange County.

“The cases started to get spread out all over the courts,” Lubinski said.

The cases usually begin near the jewelry mart in downtown Los Angeles, where the thieves--often driving cars rented under false names--pick out possible victims. They then follow the victims for several days before forcing the victims’ cars off roads or ambushing them in parking lots.

In recent weeks the LAPD has helped arrest 18 members of four gangs--three of them from Los Angeles--for crimes committed in Orange County, Lubinski said.

Other crimes remain unsolved. Last week, three armed men ambushed a salesman outside a Santa Ana motel and escaped with several thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry.

“In our cases, there have been no injuries so far,” Lubinski said. “In Los Angeles, they have jumped jewelry salesmen and beaten them up.”