A 31-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman answered a knock at their door just before 9:30 p.m. Friday near Vandalia and Fountain avenues in response to a woman claiming to represent a cleaning agency. Instead, the pair was met by two men and a woman, all armed, who forced their way inside their home and to the bedroom, authorities say.
Officers arrested a 45-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, both of no fixed address, at a Niagara Falls motel on Nov. 7. A search of the motel and a vehicle led to the recovery of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and stolen items, said police. But investigators say many valuables may already have been sold and that some families may still be unaware if their mausoleum niche was robbed.
Laure Beccuau, the lead prosecutor in the recent Louvre case involving the theft of more than $100 million worth of historic jewelry, suggested in an interview on French news channel BFMTV this week that the job could be the work of organized crime or commissioned by a major "sponsor." But lawyer Christopher Marinello, founder and CEO of Art Recovery International, a London and Venice-based group specializing in tracking down stolen works of art, dismisses the latter Hollywood scenario.
The facts here outline an incredibly audacious scheme to purchase real jewelry—and hugely expensive jewelry at that—with phony money, which eventually came undone through thorough, tenacious work by Boston police detectives.
Owner Rosanna Meza's brothers discovered the safes open and most of the inventory missing when they arrived at Meza's Jewelry on Sunday morning. The burglars stole approximately $1.5 million in jewelry, leaving only some 10 karat gold chains behind. The store lacked insurance to cover the loss, compounding the impact of the theft.
