4 Arrested in $100,000 Jewelry Store Robbery

Four Los Angeles residents were arrested Friday on suspicion of robbing a Palmdale jewelry store of rings worth an estimated $100,000 after an employee from a nearby shop followed them to a motel, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.

Deputies said three men, one with a pistol, robbed the Zales Jewelers store in the Antelope Valley Mall about 10:10 a.m. and fled. They later abandoned their stolen car and were driven by a woman in another car to a Motel 6 in Palmdale, where they were arrested, deputies said.

The four suspects remained in custody at the sheriff’s Lancaster station in lieu of $35,000 bail each. They were identified as Rowlando Smith, 20; Patrick Ramsey, 21; Don Manuel, 27; and the driver, Jimetta Mosby, 21.

A male employee of another store in the mall, who did not want his identity made public, followed the suspects from the jewelry store to the motel and flagged down a passing sheriff’s patrol car, deputies said. The jewelry was recovered.