In Jewelry Business, Robberies Come With the Territory

Guns and thieves—they're part of the trade for jewelry stores.

Last Friday, an employee at shot and killed two would-be robbers after one pushed an automatic, high-powered handgun into a co-worker's stomach. In the wake of that incident, which shocked many San Juan Capistrano residents, Manuel Tario, the manager of on Camino Capistrano, said he's saddened, but not surprised.

"I've seen it happen before," he said.

Although robberies and killings are fairly rare in small-town San Juan Capistrano, local jewelers said there's an expectation that stores with such expensive merchandise are prime targets.

In 2010, the number of robberies at jewelry stores increased nationwide by 3.6 percent, according to the Jewelers' Security Alliance, a nonprofit trade association. Forty-one percent of those robberies ended in violence and 67 percent involved guns.

Ten years ago, in a situation similar to Friday's heist, armed men entered and put owner Michael Guddy "on the drop," he said. But unlike Monaco's employee, Guddy didn't have time to reach for the firearm he keeps in the family-owned store on Del Obispo Street.

If he had, however, he would have used it.

"If I have the opportunity, I will," he said of firing the gun. But sometimes, "they come in and stick the gun at you and you don't have time to reach for yours."

The security alliance's 2010 report also found most jewelry robberies occur in daylight, specifically between 10 a.m. and noon. Monaco's holdup began at 11:15 a.m.

Although Monaco requires customers to be buzzed in by employees after entering a first set of glass doors, the three armed men—two of them masked—entered because the first one held the door open for his accomplices.

Neither of San Juan's two other jewelry stores use buzzers. They're not effective,  Guddy said: "If they were, insurance companies would require them."

That doesn't mean nothing can be done to improve safety. Tesario said security precautions at Roberto's 70 California locations have stopped five to 10 potential robberies. Alarm buttons are installed throughout the stores, and employees carry personal alarms and use coded signals to communicate with each other when someone suspicious enters.

"If we see something that looks suspicious, we don't wait until the last minute," he said.

California leads the nation in the percentage of jewelry store that get robbed, according to the 2010 report published by the security alliance.

San Juan doesn't break down its total commercial robberies (about 16 per year from 2007 to 2010 and nine by the end of May this year) by type of business, said Sheriff's Lt. John Meyer.  

But at least of the three city's jewelry stores has been targeted by criminals. In early 2010, for example, thieves drilled through a wall at Mission Jewelers and carted off a 1,000-pound safe containing $1 million in jewels, according to the Associated Press.

Correction/clarification: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of jewelers in town.