Articles and News
THE TERRIFYING TRUTH: WHAT ALL TRAVELING JEWELRY PROFESSIONALS FACE DAILY | August 04, 2012 (4 comments)
A July, 2012 story from the road:
Merrick, NY—As you know, I generally travel to visit Centurion retailer invitee stores on behalf of all exhibitors almost every week between June and November.
That may be changing for a while. I am writing this to inform you of the dangers in Texas in particular, as well as the dangers of the road in general for all traveling jewelry professionals. So when requesting an in-person meeting with a line at the store, as convenient as it may be from time to time, keep in mind that that the people who make this possible are indeed risking their lives every day. The following is a true story.
Two weeks ago this Wednesday, I was robbed at gunpoint in the Holiday Inn Express parking lot in Grapevine, Texas (near Dallas/Fort Worth airport) at about 12:30 PM.
Strangely enough, it wasn't scary because it happened in less than a minute, and because I wasn't surprised, due to the good job this industry does of sharing information among traveling jewelry professionals. I don't carry jewelry or diamonds or colored gemstones, yet I'm certain I was sighted at multiple jewelry stores in the Dallas area the day before the robbery; followed; and I'm pretty sure a tracker was even secured to my car to tip off the "gang" where I would be when they wanted to rob my suspected jewelry or gems.
I never walk into a jewelry store with anything more than an iPad, a Centurion catalog, and a couple of notepads and pens. And I dress casually.
Yet the gang following me DIDN'T KNOW I CARRIED NO JEWELRY VALUE, and must have thought I had a bag of jewelry, diamonds, gems, or both on my person. Here's what happened:
On Tuesday, July 17, I landed at DFW and drove to see Willis Jewelers in Rockwall, Markham Jewelers in Frisco, and Pieter Andries in Southlake. Meeting lengths ranged from 15 minutes to an hour. I suspect they added the tracker while I was at my last meeting with Pieter Andries, as I went to a gas station, then to the hotel area (but did not check in), then to a Subway, then to the hotel. I didn't emerge to go to my next meeting with deBoulle until about 12:30 p.m. the next day. It was an odd time to leave a Holiday Inn Express, and a long time to wait for me, unless they knew my car was still in the lot.
I first realized there was a gunman on the scene as I passed the large black SUV next to my car, as I went to toss my bags in and take off. He (a 5'7", medium-build Hispanic male with short black hair, two hands on the gun, and a finger on the trigger) told me to drop everything and give him what he asked for or I was a dead m----- f-----. I raised my hands, tossed my backpack, old cell phone and shirts and roller bag on the floor at his request. When he asked if I had any cash, I told him I had a "few bucks" on me. He did not approach me to take any cash. He then he told me to get down on the ground next to my car and I complied. I believe I then heard a voice from a car telling him to take my backpack, as he apparently grabbed that and my old phone and was gone (I'm certain in a car with one or two others) within a few seconds.
I stood up and called 911 and filed a police report. I did not chase the car as I knew they had fire arms. The Grapevine police arrived in less than 10 minutes, took the report, and agreed to call the Jewelers Security Alliance at my suggestion—which the detective Stubblefield did. They held little hope I would ever see my backpack again, as I had no car license plate or car description for them.
In reviewing the course of events I was certain I was correct in not trying to tell the gunman that I had no jewelry in my backpack. These gangs seem not to hesitate to take violent action of late, and he probably would have shot me out of frustration.
Not knowing quite what to do next, I went to see a local jeweler I've known for a long time, who told me that I was now marked and that the smartest thing I could do was to go home "now" or change cars right away. He was concerned that I was bringing the gang to his door and noted that he is always concerned for the safety of his family and employees and never carries anything out of his office with him. At his suggestion, I went straight to the airport and headed home that night.
A week later I got a phone call on my mobile phone from a Ft. Worth woman whose father had found my backpack in a field while he was trimming trees. He and his daughter reported it to the Ft. Worth police, who spoke to me while with the woman, her father, and my bag. I gave the Grapevine detective's information to the Ft. Worth officer, who believed it was my backpack. He gave it to the Grapevine PD, who in turn overnighted it to me at my expense. All items (laptop, important financial papers, etc.) were intact.
This was a miracle, as I never expected to see it again and had already changed all my bank accounts, passwords, et cetera. The man who rescued the backpack also noted that when he returned to the field area after having secured it that he spied someone (whom he could ID) frantically looking for the bag he had left in that field. Apparently, knowing there was no jewelry, they had dumped the backpack and were planning to come back and go through it to see what could be salvaged from the theft.
In the aftermath I am now thinking I need to travel much less to stores and make a lot more phone calls, and when I do travel, to do so much more carefully. I believe that the gangs are hitting more people they would have stayed away from in the past, because more jewelry pros are traveling with less value due to the extensive dangers of the road.
Most of the vendors I know who are branded or sell better jewelry rarely see many retailers that are close to one another. But because I see stores for all of our exhibitors, I need to do just that to make the trips more efficient, as I am not selling anything.
Our exhibitors tell me they try to see one store in a market and move on, and some even have rules that they never stay overnight in a city where they just showed the line. Some never travel with jewelry. Some try not to travel. Some do mainly trunk shows and ship the line from one jewelry store to the next. There were strong suggestions to stay in larger hotels when staying overnight and to use valet parking or not to use a rental car at all on the road. (It might be a very good idea to rent a car in your home market rather than risk your car license plate being traced to your home.) Other suggestions were to hire armed off-duty police to pick them up at the airport and go to the store, then take them back to the hotel or back to the airport. One designer sales exec told me this costs an extra $500 per trip but is worth it for her. Getting hit in parking lots as well as while driving from one place to another are the key weak links the gangs like to attack, and they are especially sensitive to anyone going to multiple jewelry stores in an area on a single day.
I hope this information has been of some value to you. Feel free to email me at hh@centurionjewelry.com or call me at 516-377-5909 or 516-647-8165 if you would like to discuss at any time.