Local man wanted in alleged theft ring

Robert Chacon

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives are looking for a Glendale

business owner they believe is a member of a jewelry-store theft ring

responsible for stealing items worth millions from businesses across

Los Angeles and Orange counties, including a store in La Canada

Flintridge.

The Sheriff’s Department has a $2-million arrest warrant for Ara

Karapetian, 42, of Glendale. He owns Mirage Clothing and Armenian

Express Inc., a money transfer business in Glendale, Det. Richard

Lutz of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station said. Both businesses

are at 620 S. Glendale Ave.

Detectives have arrested six men in connection with 17 jewelry

store break-ins that took items worth $5 million, Lutz said.

Lutz said the men are members of a Russian-Armenian organized

crime group.

A multi-agency group, including the Los Angeles Police Department

and agencies from Orange County, spent hundreds of hours on

surveillance, and served search warrants on businesses and homes

before making the arrests last month, Lutz said.

“We have effectively stopped a major, major theft ring,” he said.

Detectives from the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station began their

investigation May 12, when they arrested two men who were allegedly

spotted by the owner of a La Canada Flintridge jewelry store as they

drove away with the store’s safe in the back of a tow truck.

Avo Babayan was driving to his store, at 2147 Foothill Blvd., when

he noticed the tow truck heading in the opposite direction. He turned

his car and chased the truck, and yelled for the help of passing

sheriff’s deputies.

Babayan’s store, Aviani Jewelers, received about $10,000 damage

when the alleged burglars entered his store through the roof and

pulled the safe out the front door with a winch.

“I am very happy, and so should every store owner that was

targeted, that they were caught,” Babayan said. The theft ring

targeted Armenian-owned jewelry stores, and conducted the burglaries

by entering through the roof and pulling safes out the front door,

Lutz said.

Sheriff’s detectives urge anyone in the community with clues to

the whereabouts of Karapetian to call the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s

Station at 248-3464.