LOS ANGELES (KNX) — Los Angeles police have warned locals that wearing expensive jewelry in public could make them targets for thieves, some of them armed and dangerous.
“Over the last year there has been a marked increase of armed robberies involving victims wearing expensive jewelry while in public. If it is visible, it can be a target,” an LAPD statement read.
Robberies increased 18 percent year-over-year in 2022 in L.A. Armed robberies were up 44 percent during the same period.
Detectives with LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division formed the Follow-Home Task Force in November to investigate crimes where victims are targeted by robbers and followed to their homes or to isolated aresa where robberies are executed out of the public’s sight.
Detectives have noted a significant uptick in follow-home robberies in the city’s jewelry district, on Melrose Avenue, and in the vicinity of high-end restaurants and nightlife establishments in Hollywood and the Mid-Wilshire area.
“The victims were being targeted based on the high-end jewelry they were wearing or the high-end car they were driving,” police said in a statement in November announcing the task force’s creation.
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