Community Corner
Local Jeweler Takes Precautions to Avoid Violent Crime
Benjamin and Co. Fine Jewelry increases staff and adds cameras to avoid the same fate as a Mission Viejo jeweler last month.
The video was at the same time engrossing and brutal, and it showed just how serious two men who robbed a Mission Viejo jewelry store were about getting the goods and getting away.
In the wake of that jewelry store robbery Feb. 1 that left two injured, one Rancho Santa Margarita jeweler has beefed up security.
Since hearing about the crime, Janet Benjamin of in Rancho Santa Margarita said she has made her business more secure.
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As a precaution, Benjamin said, she has had more employees working on the premises and has increased video surveillance.
"I put up more cameras,” Benjamin said. “I already have six cameras, but I have, like, two more now."
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She said shoppers can feel safe in her store because of the latest security improvements.
Benjamin’s reaction is understandable. On Feb. 1, . and in doing so injured its married owners in what Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said was one of the most violent crimes he had seen. One of the men pistol-whipped the store's owner, sending him to the hospital with serious head injuries. The robbers grabbed about $100,000 in merchandise.
That robbery came a month after from in Laguna Niguel on Dec. 30. Police suspect that the same robbers committed both crimes.
Both robberies took place in stores that were near freeways; the Laguna Niguel heist took place within a couple of blocks of the 73 toll road, and the Mission Viejo robbery was right next to Interstate 5.
Benjamin and Co. is in Plaza Antonio, and even though it’s just a few blocks from the city’s police station, it’s also just a short getaway drive down Antonio Parkway to the 241 toll road.
Lt. Stacey Taylor, chief of Police Services in Rancho Santa Margarita, said that after the Mission Viejo robbery, the Sheriff's Department’s South County offices reached out to jewelry store owners and gave them this message: "Be aware, be on the lookout."
Deputies provided local business owners with pictures of the attackers, according to Taylor.
"Typically, thieves look for a fast exit point," Taylor said. "It doesn't preclude them from targeting us [in Rancho Santa Margarita], but it's a good thing we're a destination city and not a city on the freeway."
Taylor said that if any business wants advice or suggestions for making its business more secure it should contact the city’s Police Services department.
“They, of course, are always free to call any time.” Taylor said. The number is 949-635-1819.
Any local merchants who are doing more to prepare in case of robberies can e-mail the author.
