Inside a Multi-Million Dollar Diamond Heist Ring

tonight on 2020 diamonds aren't forever from sunny florida to glitzy vegas to the rainy northwest we're taking you inside the robbery road show nine states 25 stores and more than 4 million dollars in hot ice this was a case of a lifetime if eyes could kill i would have been dead right then and our story starts here mid-afternoon brings the usual hustle and bustle to portland's downtown district but things are about to get very unusual watch carefully it's very vivid because it's burned into your memory burned is exactly what jeweler david margulis got the day architect jason shaw entered his store he was very clean cut he was wearing a nice shirt and tie and jacket like we're dressed with money in his pocket and engagement on his mind the ring-shopping romeo puts the staff at ease he then said may i compare the two rings and see them both together but in an instant he changes the rules of engagement from a potential suitor to stone cold crook he turns on his heels and just jumps off the stairway running out the door and i took one look and knew what was going on and ran right after him crime alert now about a thief dressed so well he took his victims by surprise tonight we're taking you inside one of the country's most slick and daring robbery rings a crew so meticulous they even had someone wiping prints off of doorknobs michael young cleaned your fingerprints out the door when you hit it going out yeah so hardcore they even taste themselves just to see what it felt like to quote become one with the taser and so inventive the tricks of their trade included a golf shirt a cute little chihuahua and a pair of wave runners so meet the bling ring america's most successful diamond thiefs with so much brass they flaunt their loot and locations online even using cash for a cushion turning on the charm to steal hearts and diamonds you're kind of describing the doppelganger for brad pitt in ocean's 11. it was almost like it was a tv show type or a movie or something exactly tonight we're taking you back to the scenes of the crime i wonder if you have anything to say to the people i wonder if you have anything to say to the people you'll see it all every second of those hits and runs caught on tape because if diamonds are a gang's best friend cameras are a cops they needed to be stopped and we were the people to stop them good evening david is away tonight a lot of young romantics want a big diamond but do you know who else does jewel thieves it is the number one gem to resell for the highest value so tonight we're taking you inside one of america's most notorious bling rings their cons their capers and all that incredible surveillance tape of their crime sprees caught in real time but when will they be caught once again matt gutman so what really went down at the margulis jewelry store in portland well cracking the case becomes the responsibility and borderline obsession of veteran detectives eric mcdaniel and brian hughes there's a digital signature to every one of these starsky and hutch they're not mcdaniel drives a kia four-door and hughes usually has his trigger finger on a computer mouse i mean we're talking property crimes here they don't make a lot of news stories about property crime investigations but make no mistake these are straight shooting investigators highly trained highly motivated arriving on scene to find a curious set of circumstances we have a lot of police officers that work in our downtown core and for the person to get away that quick was unusual property crimes around here usually involves someone looking to make a quick score for drug money but detectives feel the tail of the tape tells them otherwise we were under impression by the way the fella carried himself he wasn't local he seemed like he he was squared away and had a plan and they have another hunch they don't think that he was working alone there's got to be more than one guy i mean just for our experience there always is let's rewind to show you what the police figured out what the jeweler didn't realize at the time a person must have known how to get away and must have had someone waiting for him to help him that's correct there's a team of fellows out here on the streets looking out for him to do the theft in this case the suspect dubbed it the runner has been provided all the tools needed to succeed he's been told what to say how to say it even his identity is scripted he's not jason shaw and he's not an architect he's wearing clear glasses to alter his appearance and a fancy suit to appear successful all of it provided by a man sitting outside orchestrating the entire event he's called the risk reducer and he communicates through a disposable cell phone he pre-planned everything to a point where the risks were reduced and the likelihood of them getting caught with zero the second in command is also parked nearby he's called the hero stopper the person that stops the hero is going to have some pepper spray on them or something to try to incapacitate the good citizen trying to stop the thief around the block waiting for his cue with the engine running is another guy the getaway driver is getting into place he's driving a white dodge minivan stolen specifically for this job you steal a car it was never registered to you there's nothing on paper showing you put money down for it and that way you can just leave it so there was a risk there but i think it was a smart one when the runner makes his move and exits store left it's not a random choice the risk producer has mapped out every step of the escape route that's the jewelry store right there this is broadway he hooks a left into the pacific center that has one very important feature the runner ducks into a nearby office building called the pacific center because he doesn't want to be at the center of attention he comes barreling down these stairs races across the tile and hits those revolving doors with a full head of steam and that's this exit through the building on southwest 6th street now there's a minivan waiting right here it's doors open and they drive away with 147 thousand dollars worth of diamonds it was very successful but i do have to give the guys credit but wait there's more the runner alerts the risk reducer of a mistake during the heist he left fingerprints on the front door and look at this true to his title the risk reducer returns to the store during all the confusion and wipes the prince off the door meanwhile the getaway driver steers that dodge minivan south toward salem where it's abandoned now everyone piles into a pickup truck known as the wash vehicle this truck is not a stolen vehicle and has never been used in a crime providing everyone inside with an added layer of protection i think that they were very confident in their level of planning and their skills and abilities but who are these guys nobody seems to know and at this point the detectives are still playing catch-up they get the word out to pawn shops in case anyone attempts to sell the rings and they run down a host of dead ends there were other tips that came in that i had to follow up on they didn't seem promising hughes and mcdaniel suspect this isn't the work of a local crew these kinds of crimes are not real common here in the portland metropolitan area i had been a property crime investigator for some time and was familiar with the crime trends in oregon and that was unique for this state and whoever the so-called jason shaw really is he hasn't stuck around to find out how the story ends with all the cameras we had a very clear view of him however it was a cold trail because he left the city maybe but it doesn't look like he and his crew went far another robbery goes down about 10 miles outside of portland it has happened again and again it is caught on camera a bold diamond theft this one in lake oswego this time the runners bundled up in hat and gloves with a warm heart for his girlfriend he said that his girlfriend loved one of the necklaces that was in the window and asked to see it as the salesperson goes to get that necklace he turns his attention to a safe in the back as you see he's not just a runner but a high hurdler hopping over the counter swiping a total of five different diamonds and back out the front door for a moment i was just stunned and i said to him no you don't oh yes he does still no arrests and only headaches weeks pass then one day the phone rings it's a call that'll turn this case and the lives of our two detectives upside down we knew this is going to be something that we're never going to get to experience again in our lives as far as an investigation this was a case of a lifetime you

Channel: ABC News

Views: 1,521,952

Rating: 4.6856127 out of 5

Keywords: 2020, diamonds, aren't, forever, diamond, heist, jewel, thieves, ABC, News

Id: 3AakqKqBNHY

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 31 2015