2 Robbers Get $500,000 in Jewels : Tarzana: Broker may have been followed to associate’s house, where both were held up at gunpoint, police say.

Two robbers, who may have followed a jewelry broker from a downtown Los Angeles jewel market, broke into a Tarzana home and made off five minutes later with $500,000 in cut diamonds and sapphires, police reported Tuesday.

Police said jewelry broker Indra Jhaveri, 44, of Arizona may have been followed Monday night from the Downtown Jewelry Mart--where he had been trying to drum up business earlier in the day--to the home of David Rahima, 42, another jewelry broker, in the 19100 block of Santa Rita Street, where he planned to do business.

“I don’t think this is a random robbery,” Los Angeles Police Lt. Ken Lady said.

About 10 p.m., two robbers, one armed with a semiautomatic pistol, knocked on the door of the house, police said. When Rahima opened the door, they pushed him to the floor, taped up the mouth and hands of a screaming Jhaveri with duct tape, grabbed the precious stones on the table and fled, police said.

“The robbers told (Jhaveri) a hundred times that if he didn’t shut up, they would kill him,” Detective Jay Rush said. “Then they just scooped up the stuff and ran out. It was very unusual.”

There were no injuries.

In addition, police said Rahima had reported shots being fired at his house on two occasions this year. The most recent such incident was Sunday, Lady said. He would not comment on whether the shots fired about 8 p.m. Sunday were connected to the robbery, or give any other details of the incidents.

Police have no suspects in the jewel robbery, but are searching for two white men in their 30s, one about 5 feet 8 inches and 160 pounds, with brown hair and eyes, the other about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, also with brown hair and eyes.

The gemstones were uninsured, according to Jhaveri, who has been in the jewelry business for 10 years and was visiting from Arizona, where he buys and sells jewelry from his home. Some of the diamonds and sapphires were his, and some were on consignment from other jewelry brokers, he told police.

Police said Jhaveri and Rahima said they had done business with each other for three years. They both travel internationally to buy and sell jewelry and precious stones, and it was not unusual for them to carry large amounts of jewelry, Lady said.

Rahima, owner of a wholesale jewelry business in the San Fernando Valley, also has a residence and jewelry business in New York, Lady said.