Thieves Waylay Cab, Steal $600,000 in Pearl Necklaces

In what police say was a well-planned attack, a band of gunmen forced a taxi to the side of a busy Los Angeles freeway Wednesday night, beat the driver and robbed two jewelry salesmen of $600,000 in pearl necklaces.

It was the latest in a string of robberies that police believe are the work of a ring of South Americans who have made Los Angeles the jewelry theft capital of the country.

About 8 p.m., four or five armed men in a sport utility vehicle overpowered a cabdriver and his passengers, two pearl salesmen from Japan, on the transition road from the southbound Harbor Freeway to the westbound Century Freeway. The thieves beat the driver and took two suitcases loaded with pearl necklaces from the trunk, according to police. The driver suffered minor injuries.

The salesmen were on their way to Los Angeles International Airport to catch a flight to New York, police said.

The thieves’ vehicle, described by witnesses as a green or blue Ford Bronco or Chevy Blazer, was last seen heading west on the Century Freeway.

Police declined to identify the victims or provide more details, saying an investigation is continuing. But they confirmed that the attack was similar to others believed to be the work of a ring of thieves, primarily Colombians, who target jewel salespeople and couriers.

“The M.O. is consistent with other thefts of this kind,” said Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. John Pasquariello.

The thieves usually use a distraction ruse to rob jewelry stores or gang up on traveling salespeople on the road, police said.

Such robberies have been a stubborn problem for the jewelry industry, particularly in Los Angeles.

In the first nine months of this year, jewel thieves struck 225 times nationwide, taking $55 million in jewelry from couriers and traveling salespeople, said John Kennedy, president of the Jewelers’ Security Alliance, a trade association that works to reduce such crimes.

Of about 90 jewelry robberies in California this year, 70 or so have occurred in Los Angeles County, police said.

In response to the problem, the LAPD formed a special task force of a dozen detectives in 1997. The unit has made more than 50 arrests this year.

Kennedy said jewelry robberies are a nationwide epidemic, and he called on federal officials to assign more agents to the problem.

“It’s not just a problem in L.A. It’s a problem everywhere,” he said.

Laura Bosley, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said: “It is a problem that the FBI is concerned about and does take seriously.” But she could not provide details on the bureau’s efforts.

Kennedy said many jewelers and couriers have begun traveling with armed guards, usually off-duty police officers.

But “the gangs don’t seem to be put off by armed guards,” he added. “They will use five or six people to surround and disarm a person.”