ABC 20/20 episode will highlight the case of a group of American jewel thieves who held up several high end jewelry stores all across the nation. Tonight’s ABC 20/20 will highlight the case of David Marguilis’ Jewelry Store and Lou Wilson Fine Jewelry Store. Lou Wilson Fine Jewelry’s owner was robbed five years ago in Vero Beach, Florida, by two of the men in the group. According to him, they entered the store while he was in the back, and then ambushed him when he came out. One of the men attacked him with a stun gun and later apologized after making way with almost 100,000 in fine jewelry. The owner told WPBF that in 40 years he had never been robbed until that day.
ABC News reported that the diamond thieves hit eight states, amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and stealing diamonds and jewels worth millions of dollars. The sophisticated jewelry thieves left each city they hit in shock and disbelief. They would’ve gotten away with it, too, if they hadn’t bragged so much on social media. According to law-enforcement officials, every chance they got, the diamond thieves flashed wads of cash, and showed off their fancy trappings and lavish lifestyle.
Unfortunately for them, their stroke of good luck ended after a jewelry heist held at a Portland, Oregon, jewelry shop in 2010 led police to Victor Lupis, a man who had been identified by tipster. Once detectives made contact with Lupis, he stated that he was not the only person robbing jewelry stores, but that he was a small part of a bigger operation, an operation that included a bevy of interesting characters who were hitting expensive fine jewelry shops all over the country. Lupis also described for police each roll that each person played in the jewelry heists. The ringleader was Michael Young, most likely the savviest one in the group and the mastermind of the plan. According to Lupis, Michael Young knew how to organize everything and made sure that his people felt comfortable hitting their target store quickly and getting out with very little risk.
As police detectives continued their investigation, they were able to connect the other men to the jewelry heists using their social media pages where they were able to actually identify some of the jewelry pieces taken from the high end stores. In the end, they were all arrested and sentenced to time in prison. Michael Young received a little under 10 years, Trey Adams was sentenced to 7 years, Jack Cannon was sentenced to 30 years for armed robbery, Ernest Remor was handed a sentence of 10 years, and Victor Lupis served just under two years in prison. He is now free.
Tune in to ABC 20/20 tonight at 10 p.m., to see how police nabbed these hardcore jewel thieves.
Lou Fine Jewelry Store Vero Beach, Florida, Theft Video
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