June 10, 2008, 4:40AM
Thefts add risky facet to gem sales
Network of jewel robbers targeting wholesalers' reps more and more


By JENNIFER LATSON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle



RESOURCES
HEISTS IN HOUSTON

At least five traveling jewelry salesmen have been robbed in Houston since late April, to the tune of more than $3.5 million:

• April 28: Three masked men attacked a New York salesman in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express in south Montgomery County, stealing $600,000 in loose stones.

• April 29: Thieves pepper-sprayed a salesman as he left a Houston restaurant, stealing his jewelry line, worth $200,000.

• May 1: Three men jumped out of a white SUV as a salesman left a Rice Village jewelry store, attacking him and stealing $250,000 worth of jewels.

• May 14: Robbers snatched about $1 million in jewelry when they held up a salesman who had stopped at a Chevron station on Bissonet near Kirby.

• May 15: Three masked men followed a jewelry salesman into a Waffle House on Westheimer near Hayes. They pistol-whipped him and made off with an estimated $1.5 million in diamonds.
LAS VEGAS — Most of their stories end the same way: with slashed tires, broken windows, a few paralyzing moments of panic, and then hundreds of thousands of dollars in glittering merchandise gone in a flash.

Take Martin Bartholomay. A Dallas jewelry wholesaler, he was leaving his office just after 6 p.m. on a September night last year.

The sky was still light and the parking lot teemed with people, including two salesmen standing next to their car carrying jewelry cases. A black Toyota with tinted windows screeched to a stop. Four men jumped out, wearing black robes and smiley-face Halloween masks.

"They were jumping up and down and creating havoc," said Bartholomay, who was watching from a distance. "Kind of a shock and awe thing."

One of the salesmen took off running; the other dropped to the ground, where one of the robbers held him at gunpoint.

In a heartbeat, it was over. They grabbed the case, containing $100,000 in pearls, and the Toyota sped off, joined by several SUVs that had blocked the parking lot's exits.

Bartholomay's story is not unusual. Traveling jewelry salesmen nationwide have increasingly found themselves the prized targets of a network of jewel thieves, like the group that struck in Dallas last fall.

The same network is suspected in the armed robberies of five traveling salesmen in Houston since late April, which netted more than $3.5 million and left one salesman injured when the thieves pistol-whipped him in a Waffle House.

More than 20,000 people gathered recently in Las Vegas for the country's largest annual jewelry show.

On the runway, models flaunted heavy strands of pearls and sparkling lavalieres. But the four salesmen by the bar had turned their backs to swap tales of armed robbery.

Buyers browsed rows of sapphires, opals, amethysts and emeralds in the ornate and heavily secured convention halls, cordoned off from the clinking slots of Vegas' Venetian casino. They signed million-dollar contracts for diamond-encrusted bracelets and 5-carat engagement rings. Their custom cufflinks gleamed under the chandeliers.

In the convention's shadows, the salesmen who ferry the priceless merchandise traded tales of the danger that lurks beneath the industry's gilded surface.


Easy prey for robbers

Since 1992, the FBI has been tracking the members of what they say is an organized network of South American jewel thieves.

The Jewelers' Security Alliance, which tracks the jewelry crimes, reported that last year, nationwide, 177 salesmen were robbed of $39.5 million in merchandise, up slightly from 155 robberies and $32.5 million the year before.

So far this year, Houston has had seven robberies. Only Los Angeles has had more.

The salesmen are easy prey, typically traveling alone and carrying $1 million or more in merchandise. The thieves are well-armed and expertly trained in military tactics.

"These crews are very good at what they do, and they do their homework very well," said FBI Special Agent Noel Gil, who coordinates the South American Theft Group Task Force in the bureau's Miami office. "When they pick a target, they will follow them for up to multiple days."

In April, the task force busted several members of a Los Angeles-based cell they believe is made up of more than 30 Colombian nationals. Agents arrested four members of the crew, which they had been tracking since January, in a car carrying stolen gems. They were stopped in Miami Beach just days before a major jewelry show there.

Since the arrests, the group has dispersed, Gil said. It's possible that members of the same cell have moved on to Houston, he said, but there are other crews out there, including some based in Houston.

Salesmen take the robbery risk seriously, many of them choosing to bypass the potential profits of Houston's lucrative jewelry market.

"I've had at least 10 friends hit, three of them in Houston," said J. Keith Smith, a Lubbock salesman. "Houston's the fourth-largest city in the country, and I know so many guys who won't go there."

The thieves' method is simple: A watchman stakes out a jewelry store until he spots a salesman. Then the group will tail the salesman's car.

The salesmen know they are being watched. Sometimes they see the thieves in their rearview mirrors.

One jewelry salesman outran the bandits on a flat tire when, on an East Texas highway two years ago, he realized his flat was no accident.

A gray truck with no front license plate began to follow him closely.

"I pulled into the right lane, going 20 miles an hour; he pulled into the right lane, going 20 miles an hour," said the Texas salesman, a 26-year veteran of the business who deals mostly in pearls, and who asked not to be named.

"I drove the tire down to the rim, and when the sparks were shooting everywhere, I saw a Firestone," he said. "I pulled into the bay, and watched the truck drive by."

Jewel thieves usually strike when a salesman is alone and his guard is down. Spiking a tire is one trick the they use to strand their target a few miles out of town, salesmen say. Otherwise, the thieves will follow until the salesman stops for food, gas or lodging.

The salesmen have adopted certain strategies to throw the thieves off their scent. Some dress casually and try to avoid carrying a jewel case.

"If I'm just carrying one or two pieces, I'll put it in my front pocket," said another longtime salesman.

Industry officials urge constant vigilance.

"You have to spot them before they spot you. You have to engage in evasive driving tactics," said John Kennedy, president of the Jewelers' Security Alliance. "Don't go straight from one store to another. Drive around the block. Drive down side roads in a suburban neighborhood. If you're being followed, you've got a problem."


No insurance, no jobs

In an increasingly Internet-dominated marketplace, the days of the door-to-door salesmen are long gone. Jewelry salesmen are among the last holdouts. In this business, customers still want to hold the product before signing for it.

"The product — a very expensive, luxury product — is such that the jeweler wants to see it in their hands. They want to use their loupe. They want to examine it," Kennedy said.

But the salesmen have been hit hard by their losses. All but two of a dozen salesmen interviewed at the Las Vegas convention had been victims of the theft rings.

Often the robberies cost them their jobs, because the insurance companies that cover jewelry wholesalers won't cover a salesman who's been robbed. They'd gotten new jobs under new insurance policies without mentioning their past troubles. They declined to mention their names for fear that the new insurers would drop them, too.

Many are haunted by the robberies.

A 64-year-old salesman said he never had a problem until five years ago, when an armed robber caught him leaving a Cleveland Rolex store.

"He said, 'Give me what you've got,' " the salesman recalled. "I said, 'You can have what I've got. I don't want to die.' "

He lost 50 pounds of gold and diamonds — worth $500,000 — and he lost his job. But he's still in sales, even after a second terrifying robbery last year in Miami.

When asked why he tolerates the risk, he shrugged. "It's what I do," he said. "It's my life."

He's more careful now, he said. Making another insurance claim could cost him this job, and at 64, he doesn't expect to get another one.

"That's the death of a salesman, losing your job at my age," he said.

Thefts have forced some jewelry wholesalers to stop sending their merchandise on the road. Some, like Houston wholesaler Nasru Rupani, do most of their business at trade shows, like last weekend's.

Two of Rupani's salesmen were robbed four years ago. One was held up in his hotel room; the other stopped to use a gas station bathroom. When he came back, his bag was gone.

"We lost over $300,000 in jewelry," said Rupani, who owns the jewelry wholesale company Low Cost Leader. "We couldn't get insurance, so we had to let them go."


'This is their Christmas'

The jewelry gangs have taught salesmen and their employers to exercise caution bordering on paranoia.

With the majority of the jewel industry gathered in one casino last weekend, sellers said they were sure the thieves were nearby, waiting for a lone salesman to separate from the pack.

"Definitely they're in town. I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the building," said a diamond salesman who works for a Texas company. "This is showtime for them. This is their Christmas."

Almost no one left the show carrying jewelry. When it was over, a fleet of armored cars whisked the gems away.

jennifer.latson@chron.com






http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 28490.html