Bandits Flee With Jewelry in Midday Robbery at Mall

LAGUNA HILLS —  In a daring midday robbery, at least three armed bandits ransacked a jewelry store in the Laguna Hills Mall and left a trail of expensive bracelets on the ground as they fled.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said the robbers may be part of a jewelry ring that has been terrorizing stores in Northern and Southern California for at least two years.

“Their methods are basically the same--crash and run,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Wayne Carlander said. “We have a high degree of suspicion that it’s the same group that has centered their activity in Los Angeles.”

Armed with rifles and crowbars, the men walked into Hudson Goodman Jewelers about 12:30 p.m. Without warning they smashed a row of display cases, snatched up handfuls of jewelry and escaped through the busy lunchtime crowd.

“There were people running around everywhere,” said a clerk at Units clothing store, next to Hudson Goodman. “They ran away with their guns raised in the air, carrying a sack of jewelry. But they left a trail of jewelry on the ground and we scooped it up and just threw it on the floor” of Hudson Goodman.

No shots were fired and no injuries were reported, Carlander said. There were conflicting reports from witnesses on the number of robbers involved, with some people putting the total at five. Descriptions of the culprits were sketchy. Witnesses said they were men between the ages of 18 and 25.

The robbers made their getaway in a 1991 Peugot that had been reported stolen in San Francisco. The car was later found abandoned nearby, behind Longs Drug Store at 24167 Paseo de Valencia.

Carlander could not pinpoint how many similar robberies have been reported, but he said agencies from Oakland to Los Angeles are pooling information about the ring.

The men apparently were casing the store just before they made their move, said a cashier at Helen Grace Chocolates, across the mall from the jewelers.

“Two of them came in here and started looking around,” said the cashier. “I asked them if I could help, but they said ‘no thanks,’ and left.” A few minutes later, the cashier heard “a loud crash, you could probably hear it all over the mall. Then I saw them running out the door, I couldn’t see their face, but they were wearing the same clothes.”

The store’s doors were closed Wednesday as investigators examined the crime scene. Glass mixed with gold bracelets and other jewelry still covered the floor near the broken display cases.

Jonathon Alpert, general manager of the mall, couldn’t give an estimate of what was taken, but he said the store’s losses were minimal. “They got very little merchandise, that I know,” he said, “and what they did get wasn’t that valuable. They didn’t get to the store’s best jewelry.”

Hudson Goodman is one of five jewelry stores in the mall. One of the others, Zales Jewelers, is just a few hundred feet from the jewelry outlet that was robbed. Both are close to the mall’s main northern entrance.

“I have no idea why they picked one over the other,” Alpert said. “Crime can be pretty random.”