6 Arrested After Jewelry Heists in Brea and South Coast Plaza

Six people suspected of robbing a jewelry store and the jewelry department of Robinson’s on Monday were arrested after five of them led Huntington Beach police on a high-speed chase through Orange and Los Angeles counties.

A Zales jewelry store at the Brea Mall was robbed at 6 p.m. Monday after gunmen forced customers and employees to lie on the floor and ordered clerks to open several locked display cases. About 2 1/2 hours later, the jewelry counter at the Robinson’s department store in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa was robbed.

Witnesses to the Robinson’s heist gave authorities a partial description of a white van that was used in the robbers’ getaway, Costa Mesa Police Officer John Smith said.

Huntington Beach police noticed a van matching the description on the San Diego Freeway and tried to pulled it over, Smith said. The driver of van refused to stop and led police on a chase that hit speeds of 85 m.p.h. before ending in Los Angeles at the intersection of Normandie Avenue and 104th Street, Smith said.

Police searched the van after arresting its five occupants, Smith said, and found two pistols and an undetermined amount of jewelry.

Brea Police Lt. Cliff Trimble said property recovered at the scene and a description of the suspects “leads us to believe that these two robberies may have been committed by the same subjects.”

A sixth suspect was arrested in Costa Mesa after the Robinson’s robbery, Smith said. “He apparently didn’t make it back to the van in time.” None of the suspects was identified.

There has been a rash of jewelry store robberies in Orange County since the first of the year. In February, three men stole about $450,000 worth of diamond jewelry at Black, Starr & Frost jewelers in South Coast Plaza. In another incident at that mall, three men tried to rob the Laykin et Cie boutique located just inside I. Magnin, but panicked and fled without taking any jewelry.