Newport-Mesa a target for thieves

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- With high-end jewelry stores sprinkled throughout the

area, the twin cities -- and their toniest shopping centers -- are no

strangers to heists of expensive valuables.

As Newport Beach police launched their search for the masked men who

blasted out the windows of Fashion Island’s Traditional Jewelers late

Tuesday, the botched robbery serves as another reminder of a hard, cold

fact: Thieves target Newport-Mesa gem shops.

The three men, after opening fire on the shop’s security guards and

glass windows, didn’t get their hands on any of the valuables.

Usually they do, however. The incident was the fifth since May 1997,

when two armed men stole $325,000 in diamonds and Rolex watches from

South Coast Plaza’s Ben Bridge jewelry store.

Just last September, a pair of men wearing ski masks lifted several

Rolex watches from the Costa Mesa shopping center’s Torneau Watch Co.

The Torneau thieves have not been caught, said Costa Mesa Police Sgt.

Jack Archer.

In Tuesday’s Fashion Island jewelry store incident, authorities also

have no substantial leads.

In the hours after the robbery, police interviewed security guards,

witnesses and store employees, said Sgt. Steve Shulman, spokesman for the

Newport Beach Police Department.

Police collected ammunition shells and other evidence from the crime

scene. They’ll pool their data, then come up with a game plan to identify

the men, who escaped in a BMW.

While reluctant to attribute Tuesday evening’s Fashion Island robbery

attempt to a gang of thieves, police acknowledged that such crimes

usually take planning and, sometimes, experience.

“I would say it’s probably not their first time doing it,” Archer

said. “They don’t usually stop until they get caught. It’s a fairly

lucrative type of robbery.”

Among the most organized that police encountered was the South

American Theft Groups, a band of robbers who worked so boldly and

consistently that in September 1999 the Orange County district attorney’s

office created a two-man team to handle the cases.

Fashion Island has seen its fair number of jewelry store robberies

since opening in 1967.

In one of the largest, two traveling sales representatives were held

up in the parking lot in 1999, handing over $1.5 million in

diamond-encrusted loot.

Another time, four masked gunmen stormed Charles Barr Jewelers in

Newport Beach and escaped with several watches.

FYI

SOME BIG HEISTS

November 1990: About $1.3 million worth of cuff links and rings is

stolen from the back trunk of a salesman’s car in a shopping center

parking lot.

March 1990: Three masked men steal more than $1 million in fine

jewelry from a Newport Center jewelry store during an armed holdup.

October 1989: Three men wearing Halloween masks lifted $2 million in

valuables from Carol Klein Fine Jewelry near Fashion Island.

October 1979: Two gunmen robbed Newport Beach auction house owner

Robert Ogle of $2 million in rings, loose diamonds, watches and other

valuables as he waited outside a Hawthorne restaurant.