Police Arrest One Suspect, Recover Gun in Jewelry Heist
A convicted kidnapper and suspected gang member was arrested in a notorious Oceanside neighborhood by Laguna Beach police late last week, one of three suspected gunmen in the $600,000 stick-up of a local jewelry store. One of the weapons possibly used in the robbery was also discovered.
Detectives say they know the identities of the other two suspected bandits, who are believed in hiding somewhere in San Diego County. They successfully eluded police, who pursued their getaway car in a brief chase after the 7:15 p.m. robbery of Joshi and Baca's Jewelry last Tuesday.
Alonso Jose Lopez, 31, of Vista was arrested for suspicion of armed robbery two days later, tracked to a farm shed by a dog after he again attempted to flee authorities, Laguna Beach police Lt. Jason Kravetz said. Leads recovered from the bandits' vehicle, abandoned in an Aliso Viejo shopping center parking structure, led to an Oceanside house on Arthur Street, were police began surveillance beginning last Wednesday.
Lopez remains in custody in Orange County Jail, police said this week.
In another development, a Colt 357 handgun stolen in San Diego and believed to have been used in the jewelry store robbery was found late last week on the tollroad, near where police began their short-lived pursuit of the bandits' vehicle, Kravetz said. The gun was sent to a crime lab for analysis and was identified as a stolen weapon, he said.
Lopez was recently released from prison after serving a multiyear sentence for kidnapping involving a firearm, according to Kravetz. He is believed to be an active member of a gang from Vista and Oceanside. An Oceanside police officer was shot and killed by a gang member on Arthur Street in 2006, Kravetz said.
Police later searched the Arthur Street home, finding neither jewelry or weapons.
Store owner Jitesh Joshi, 44, a Los Angeles County resident and former diamond dealer, took over the retail shop previously known as Baca Designs in 2006. The female clerk in the store during the robbery was unharmed by the three Hispanic bandits, who wore gloves and were dressed in black, according to police.
The hold-up was the second Forest Avenue jewelry store robbery in less than a year. In February, a lone gunman who posed as a customer robbed a neighboring shop, John's Jewelry. Four years ago, armed robbers also made off with $150,000 in Rolex watches from another Forest Avenue shop, Frederick H. Rubel Jewelers.
Several citizens on Tuesday called police to report the robbery near closing time and provide a description of the getaway car, which one police officer spotted heading south on the state Route 73 tollroad. A less-than-a-mile chase ensued, ending in the Aliso Town Center parking structure where the robbers abandoned their vehicle, taking most of the loot, and dispersed.
The car's registration to a woman in San Diego and DNA evidence collected from the vehicle led police to the Arthur Street address, Kravetz said.
