2 Men Arrested in Theft of $100,000 of Levi’s

Two men were arrested and up to $100,000 worth of stolen Levi’s 501 jeans were recovered Wednesday when Los Angeles police detectives, aided by a little good luck, managed to thwart an elaborate denim heist.

The episode began sometime late Monday or early Tuesday when thieves forced their way into a small blue jeans shop near East 15th Street and Santee Street in downtown Los Angeles’ garment district, said Lt. Tom Brascia of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division.

The suspects drove a van onto the sidewalk, crashed through a plate-glass window of the vacant store next to the jeans shop, then closed a roll-down metal security door behind them for privacy.

They cut their way through the wall separating the two shops and loaded about 4,000 pairs of Levi’s 501s into the van, he said. But as they made their escape, the suspects hit a snag: Their van scraped the curb and the front license plate fell off.

Police traced the plate to a nearby car rental company -- and to the renter of the van, whom authorities described as a male Lebanese immigrant. He was arrested at his Bell condominium early Wednesday, according to Det. Clark Smith.

Later Wednesday, detectives staking out another Bell home where the garments had allegedly been stashed got another break: A van weighed down with jeans pulled out of the backyard, and the driver, another Lebanese man, was taken into custody, Smith said.