Posts in category: Crimes

April 7, 2024 – In the U.S. Island Territory of Guam, a man who allegedly walked out of a jewelry store with $24,000 worth of jewelry on Saturday was captured and charged in court the same day. Officers with the Guam Police Department responded to a jewelry store in East Hag�t�a just before noon for a reported theft. The store�s employees told police that a man, later identified as David Quichocho Uncangco Jr., had entered the store searching for a birthday gift for his son. But, when showed some merchandise, he reportedly took off with the items.

“The defendant had requested to view two gold baht chains and one diamond pendant. The total value (was) $24,290,” a magistrate’s complaint filed in the Superior Court of Guam said.

Uncangco took the items and, in the process of running out of the store, the complaint said, he dropped his cellphone. He fled the store in a silver sedan GPD would later use to track him.

“Police learned that the defendant had rented the silver sedan � (and were) able to track the location of the vehicle. Police proceeded to said location,” the complaint said.

The vehicle�s license plate had been changed. When officers pulled the vehicle over, Uncangco was in the driver�s seat.

“A search of the vehicle yielded five plastic baggies containing suspected methamphetamine, one beveled cut straw containing suspected methamphetamine and two transparent pipes containing brown and white frosty substance suspected to be methamphetamine,” the complaint said, noting that at least one of the baggies contained 0.33 grams of the drug known as ice.

The jewelry store was not the only business to report a heist. On March 22, Uncangco allegedly stole a 24-karat gold coin from a pawn shop in Dededo.

“The defendant took the gold coin valued at $3,340 and walked out the door without paying for it,” the complaint said. Uncangco was charged with two counts of retail theft as second-degree felonies and possession of a Schedule II controlled substance as a third-degree felony.

Article by Jolene Toves- The Guam Daily Post.

Click here to read the original unredacted article (to remove the jewelry store’s name).

St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands – April 7, 2024 – A man has been arrested in connection with a robbery and attempted murder at a local jewelry store, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department. The incident, which took place on Thursday, May 18, 2023, around 2:00 p.m., occurred at a jewelry store in Cruz Bay, where the store owner was shot in the face.

According to the VIPD, two unidentified males entered the establishment, and during the robbery, one of the suspects shot the owner. The assailants then fled the scene with an unspecified amount of jewelry. The injured business owner was subsequently transported to the Schneider Regional Medical Center for medical attention.

The investigation into the violent crime led to the identification of 21-year-old Jamari Gumbs as one of the suspects involved. A warrant for Gumbs�s arrest was issued on Friday, April 5, 2024, and was executed the following day.

Gumbs faces a slew of charges, including first, second and third-degree robbery, first-degree attempted murder, possession of an unlicensed firearm during a crime of violence, aiding and abetting, possession of an unlicensed firearm within 1,000 Ft. of a park, public school, and conspiracy.

Gumbs was unable to post the set bail of $250,000 and was remanded to the Bureau of Corrections pending an advise of rights hearing.

The redacted article above (to remove the name of the jewelry store that was targeted) was written by the staff of the U.S. Virgin Islands Consortium. The original, unredacted article can be viewed here.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. � March 26, 2024 – Federal authorities say they tracked an ex-con from his home on Staten Island to a jewelry store heist in Brooklyn.

Pierre Hunt, 52, of Bulls Head, drew a silver handgun on two employees inside the Bedford-Stuyvesant location on the afternoon of Jan. 8, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court.

After retrieving $200 cash from the register, he asked if there was anything else to hand over, to which one of the employees replied there was not, authorities allege.

So the defendant, according to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms investigation, fired off a shot within inches of an employee�s head. The bullet ricocheted and struck a wall, officials said.

He fled in a 2017 Nissan Rogue parked about a block away, with mismatched side mirrors, according to a complaint filed March 18 by the Department of Justice.

Surveillance images also showed the same individual sporting large diamond earrings.

A week later, Hunt was pulled over by police in an SUV matching the same description, with what appeared to be the same earrings, federal prosecutors say.

He handed over a license to officers that showed a Staten Island address. The vehicle was registered to someone else with the same address.

A federal judge signed off on a search warrant in February, which yielded data which authorities included in their request for an arrest warrant in the case.

Cell phone data, and a license plate reader on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge showed that on the day in question, Hunt made the trip to the Brooklyn neighborhood where the robbery was reported, court filings allege. The same data indicated he was back home on the Island just over an hour later.

Months prior to the stickup, authorities say, he made a transaction at a pawn shop providing the same driver�s license.

The case is federal because the store deals in interstate commerce, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney�s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

A public defender for Hunt could not be reached for comment Monday.

The defendant previously was charged as the wheelman in a pair of 2015 stickups at a gas station and a wine store in Queens, culminating in a year on Rikers Island.

He also did 18 months upstate for a 2017 felony drug conviction, records show.

Article provided by Staten Island Advance staff. Click here to read the article.

Above : Asdrubal Rodriguez, 35

PALM COAST, Florida.� – March 14, 2024 – A man who is accused of robbing a Texas jewelry store of a significant value in jewelry was arrested in Palm Coast this week, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO).

Deputies said when Asdrubal Rodriguez, 35, was pulled over, approximately $79,000 in cash and gold jewelry, all taken from the robbery in Houston, was found in his SUV.

Just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday, deputies responded to the area of Palm Coast Parkway and I-95 after technology from the Real Time Crime Center indicated the Maryland tag on a Black Chevrolet Tahoe came back tied to suspects believed to be involved in a violent armed robbery in Houston three days prior. In the heist, robbers took jewelry and cash valued at a significant monetary value and were believed to be armed and dangerous.

Deputies said they later found the SUV in a parking lot off Kings Way in Palm Coast, but the tag was obstructed. After two men loaded groceries into the SUV, they left the parking lot and ran a stop sign, deputies said. Deputies followed the vehicle for several turns and eventually pulled them over.

Rodriguez told deputies that he has never been issued a driver’s license in the United States, nor does he have a driver’s license from his home country of Cuba. FCSO used its Rapid-ID technology to verify his identity and he was arrested for driving without a license. Rapid-ID uses fingerprints on file to identify a person. After getting a search warrant, deputies said they found the gold and cash. According to FCSO, Rodriguez later confessed to committing the robbery at the jewelry store as well as pistol-whipping and spraying the victims with pepper spray during the robbery. ICE was contacted regarding both men and an ICE Detainer was obtained for Rodriguez, deputies said.

Rodriguez is being held at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on a $500 bond. The second man was released from the scene with no charges after ICE declined to respond. On Wednesday, Houston Police got a warrant for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and the warrant is in the process of being served on Rodriguez.

The warrant states that on Monday, March 11, Rodriguez and another man entered a jewelry store in Houston. While asking an employee about a piece of jewelry, that employee and the owner were both pepper-sprayed. The warrant states that the employee was also pistol-whipped. The two men then grabbed jewelry worth a significant value and ran from the store. One of the robbers who pistol-whipped the employee accidentally dropped his cell phone before running from the store. Police confiscated the cell phone as evidence.

The entire incident was recorded on store surveillance video and according to the warrant, neither robber covered their face. An exterior security camera recorded the two men leaving the store and jumping into a Nissan SUX that was driven by a third person. Cameras also recorded the Nissan SUV being followed by the same Chevy SUV with Maryland tags that was later pulled over in Palm Coast by Flagler County deputies.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Rodriguez told detectives that he was recruited to assist in the jewelry heist. He said his role was to enter the store with a trash bag and take the jewelry. The warrant states that Rodriguez told investigators that most of the stolen jewelry was sold in Houston to a buyer and that he was delivering the remaining pieces of jewelry to and cash from the jewelry sold in Houston to someone in Miami. Rodriguez was shown a surveillance picture of an unmasked robber inside the jewelry store and he reportedly identified himself as the person in the picture and gave more details about his role in the violent heist.

“Another criminal made the fatal mistake of coming to Flagler County not knowing that we work with our partners across the country,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “Our Major Case detectives are working with detectives in Houston for his connection to the jewelry store heist. We believe this robbery is part of a larger network of illegal immigrants committing crimes in America. I commend our deputies and the amazing professionals in the Real Time Crime Center and our Communications Center for helping bring this criminal to justice.”

Click here to view video an read the original unredacted article written by Eric Avenier and Travis Gibson.

Please contact the Jewelers Security Alliance at 212-687-0328 or jsa2@jewelerssecurity.org if you have any additional information about the suspects involved in this crime.