International
jewel thieves
nearly nabbed

They were posing as Saudi
royalty, but a jewelry store
owner saw through the scam

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By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

A couple suspected of being international jewelry thieves were almost caught last month by an Oahu jewelry store owner.

According to the Jewelers' Security Alliance, a nonprofit organization made up of jewelry stores across the nation, the couple is likely to have been part of a larger group responsible for stealing an estimated $2.8 million worth of jewelry since November 2000.

"Their pattern is to make several hits and then to lay low or move to a different continent for a long period of time," said alliance President John Kennedy.

"The Jewelers' Security Alliance has been aware of this couple, who at times work with several other suspects, for several years. We have given alerts in our bulletins that this group has hit from London to N.Y. to St. Louis to L.A. to Hawaii to the Sydney Olympics."

Bruce Bucky, owner of Hildgund Jewelers, said this time, the suspects posed as a visiting Saudi Arabian princess and her bodyguard. Bucky said he first met the bodyguard on Nov. 12 at his Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hawaii hotel store.

"He (the bodyguard) said they were looking for top-quality diamonds 5 carat and above," said Bucky. "And he said the princess would come in later and pick out what she wanted but she that she didn't speak any English and couldn't be around any other men besides himself, so he would be doing all the talking."

Bucky said he agreed to have female personnel conduct the sale, which took place the next day. Bucky said he even flew to the Big Island to retrieve two pieces of jewelry from another store because he thought the princess might be interested in them.

"I feel like an idiot for flying to the Big Island. ... We never had a scam like that before."

According to Kennedy, the suspects usually use "distraction" techniques to "palm or steal very valuable jewelry at high-end stores." The heists included one in Beverly Hills for $1.58 million and another in Palm Beach for $500,000, he said.

Bucky said he knew none of this and, having dealt with royalty before, did not think the bodyguard's request to be too unusual.

"The last princess I had was at the Ihilani at Ko Olina," Bucky said. "She pointed to a display case and left, and one of the guys with her said wrap it up. I said I didn't know which piece of jewelry the princess was pointing to."

"The guy said she was pointing to the whole case."

During the Kahala sale, Bucky and another man, a diamond jewelry manufacturer from Los Angeles who was also hoping to show the princess some of his merchandise, set up to watch the sale on security monitors in the store's back room. But Bucky said once he saw the "princess," he was immediately on his toes.

"She was dressed too modernly, no headpiece or shawl around her head," Bucky said. "And she didn't have an entourage. Usually princesses travel with a lot of people. The one in Ko Olina had about six with her."

In this case the entourage consisted of just the "bodyguard," who was described as well dressed, soft spoken and good looking.

"He was suave. ... He had my girls eating out of his hand," Bucky said.

Later, Bucky noticed what he called another "red flag" when he saw one of his saleswomen accidentally "touch" the princess while sitting next to her.

"She (the princess) didn't flinch, and the bodyguard didn't talk to the salesgirl," he said. "Usually if you touch a princess, she'll move or look at you cross-eyed or look at her bodyguard to let him know to do something. ... In this case, nothing."

Everything seemed to be going fine, then Bucky noticed that the bodyguard and one of his saleswomen were not anywhere within camera range.

"I called the other girl on my cell phone and asked where they were," he said. "She told me that they went into the kitchen so he could make sure that she wrapped everything properly."

Bucky said that after the packages were wrapped, the bodyguard asked that they be placed in the store's safe and that he would return to pay for them that evening. Another red flag.

"My manufacturer had just been robbed for $300,000, and he said this didn't make sense," said Bucky. "Why did they want it wrapped right now, and why come back at 5 p.m.?"

Bucky said that while the bodyguard and princess were in the front part of the store, he and his manufacturer snuck out to the safe. Once there, Bucky said he carefully unwrapped one of the four packages that supposedly held the princess's merchandise.

Empty.

"The next box I ripped apart," Bucky said. "It was empty, too."

"Right there I called 9-1-1, ran to the front and locked the door and said, 'What kind of scam are you trying to pull here?'"

"I didn't know if he had a gun, but my adrenaline was rushing."

Bucky said that during the commotion that followed, he emptied out the contents of the princess's purse to see if she had any of the missing jewelry. Then, he said, one of his salesclerks said she saw the bodyguard take the missing jewelry out of his pocket and make it seem like it had been misplaced.

Then, while checking a back storeroom to see if anything was missing, Bucky returned to find that his manufacturer had unlocked the door and let the couple go.

"His main concern was to get the jewelry back, which we did," said Bucky. "He didn't know if they had other people waiting in the parking lot that would come looking for them with guns or something."

"And neither of us knew they were international jewel thieves."

Bucky said the bodyguard called back and said he would return to finish the sale because he was still interested. Honolulu police set up an undercover operation, but the bodyguard never showed. Police said two people matching their description showed up that same day at Ala Moana and asked to look at diamonds at the Wedding Ring Shop.

"He came in and he approached me and said, 'I'm with a Saudi Arabian princess, and she doesn't speak English, and I'm looking for a 5- to 10-carat diamond,'" recalled store manager Helen Lau. "I knew he wasn't real. ... He just made me feel uncomfortable."

Bucky said that later, his saleswoman who wrapped the packages explained what happened.

"She said that he was distracting her with questions about ribbons and wrapping paper, then just before she started wrapping, asked to see one of the rings again. She handed it to him still in the box, and he opened it up. She said he did this several times and that the last time he closed the box and put the ring box in the outer box."

"At that point she had checked the box several times, so she started to wrap it."

According to Jewelers' Security Alliance officials, either the same couple or others working with them were seen the next day, Nov. 14, in California, where they attempted another heist. It was not confirmed whether that jewelry theft attempt was successful.

As for Bucky, while he still has his jewelry, he regrets not putting a stop to the thieves while he could have.

"I should have hit the alarm," he said. "This has been a major learning experience. ... It can happen to anybody."