Posted on 09/13/2024 4:24:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Police and federal agents say organized groups of thieves often move stolen luxury goods across the country for resale.
Police said an emerald-encrusted Patek Philippe watch worth at least $1-million, stolen at gunpoint from a tourist in Beverly Hills, was found after the arrests of 3 men in Miami. Eric Leonard reports for the NBC4 I-Team on Sept.12, 2024.
Police said an emerald-encrusted Patek Philippe watch worth at least $1 million, stolen at gunpoint from a tourist in Beverly Hills, was found after the arrests of three men in Miami, Florida accused of being involved in organized thefts of luxury goods across the U.S.
The discovery of the Beverly Hills watch followed an investigation into another watch theft that happened in Miami in April, when a man was robbed at gunpoint and his watch, a different Patek Philippe model worth $50,000, was stolen.
Detectives from the Miami Police Department said they identified 25-year-old Yeison Jose Bolivar as the man who committed the April robbery, and on Sept. 5 he and two other men were arrested.
Police said they found the Beverly Hills watch and a stolen rifle and a stolen handgun.
Bolivar made an initial appearance in court last week and was ordered held without bail. He's expected to return to court later this month to enter pleas to the local charge of robbery with a firearm.
The revelation that the watch stolen in Beverly Hills surfaced in Miami was no surprise to Miami area private investigator David Bolton, who has unique expertise investigating similar thefts.
"I know that a lot of watches are stolen in New York and California and up here because you don't want to be showing the product in the same location as you're stealing it," he said.
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Bolton said thieves who work together to spot, steal, and sell valuable watches often work in loosely organized teams, that troll social media posts and photos for clues to the locations and owners of high-dollar items.
"Well, I think these are organized, disorganized groups. They are groups of people that they know that they can work with. They come together as needed to work together," he said.
The Beverly Hills Patek Philippe, that Bolton said could be worth even more than $1 million, was snatched from the wrist of a British citizen who was dining at a cafe at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Aug. 7.
An affidavit filed in federal court by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent said two other men suspected of carrying out the robbery had been given photos that showed the exact watch they were dispatched to steal.
"These are the 2 watches we are looking for, they are valued at 1.3 million dollars," the men were told, according to the court papers.
The men charged with the Beverly Hills robbery, Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar and Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas, were caught by police in Riverside, California after their car was identified by officers in Beverly Hills.
During a search of a short-term rental home allegedly used by the men police said they also found a Glock handgun once owned by ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner, who died after a killing spree in 2013.
LAPD Chief Dominic Choi said last month the gun was never one that was issued to Dorner by the Department, but it was still not clear how a gun once registered to Dorner ended up with the accused watch thieves.
A watch worth over a million dollars????? I didn’t know such things existed.
If I owned such a timepiece I’d really watch it!
I’m interested to know how they ended up with a gun issued to Officer Christopher Dorner.
https://www.sbsun.com/2023/02/09/timeline-of-the-christopher-dorner-manhunt-10-years-later/
Should have had a tracking device so you could watch where it is at all times.
Does anybody really know what time it is?
There are lots of them.
Kind of stupid to wear a piece of 1 million dollar jewelry outside. Best keep it in the vault. Or, better yet, don’t buy such a silly extravagance at all.
I wonder that too.
I suspect the letter agencies really also want to know.
It also makes me want to rethink the Dorner narative.
The way they mobilized law enforcement, shot up some newspaper ladies and then burned him to death never quite set right with me.
“Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar and Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas”
Some of the heavily recruited masses of upstanding individuals BiteMe/CommieLa are bringing into the country?
If I owned such a timepiece I’d really watch it!
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It was snatched off his wrist while he was dining! I wonder how they pulled that off. Does the tourist still have his hand?
It’s amazing, the things we put value on…
I’m fine with the $35 Timex wind up That I got when I was 15.
Does anybody really care? If so, I can’t imagine why.
Yeah, I doubt that this million-dollar watch keeps better time than my $18 Casio analog watch.
You folks have good memories...I had to go to your link to refresh my memory.....Sooooo much has happened since then. I don’t know HOW we are expected to keep track of it all OR if we ARE expected to. I certainly can’t!
Does anybody really care?
L
Clever bon mot aside, if I owned such a timepiece I’d also have a fake replica of such timepiece.
And that's what I'd wear.
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