Jewelry Courier Thwarts Robbery Attempt by 7 Men

MISSION VIEJO — A jewelry courier escaped from seven thieves Thursday by putting her car in reverse, ramming another car, and fleeing a parking lot as a bullet hit her car, authorities said.

It was the second time in two days in Orange County that thieves have accosted jewelry couriers. On Wednesday, robbers in Westminster escaped with a briefcase containing $130,000 in diamonds.

Sheriff’s officials said that on Thursday, a 42-year-old woman from Hacienda Heights had just pulled into the parking lot of a jewelry store off Crown Valley Parkway shortly after 2 p.m. when six males approached her window, one brandishing a handgun.

The victim told sheriff’s deputies that she stepped on the gas in reverse, but a seventh man in a black Honda tried to block her. She rammed the Honda and fled on Crown Valley Parkway, as a bullet hit her right rear tire.

A deputy nearby saw the collision and pulled the woman over to cite her for reckless driving, until she told him what had happened, deputies said.

The driver of the Honda and the six males fled and are still at large. The woman told deputies they were wearing jogging suits and watch caps.

Deputies would not identify the woman nor say what she was carrying. They said they don’t know if the attack was connected to Wednesday’s robbery, when three carjackers stopped a courier on Trask Avenue and forced him out at gunpoint, taking the car and his briefcase. Westminster police said they believe he had been followed from Long Beach.

Also on Wednesday, a jewelry store owner in Fullerton was robbed of several thousand dollars in jewelry in front of his store.