Suspect Found, but the Earrings Are Still Missing
Authorities on Tuesday charged a Hawthorne man with a Jan. 3 jewel theft but are still looking for the diamond earrings--worth $177,000--they believe he stole from a Mission Viejo department store.
Joseph Jackson, 37, was arrested on a parole warrant Sunday afternoon and booked into Santa Ana City Jail. Jackson, who has a previous theft conviction, was formally charged with grand theft and burglary.
Jackson’s parole officer identified him Jan. 19 after seeing a television news program about the robbery at Saks Fifth Avenue in the Shops at Mission Viejo, said Sheriff Mike Carona.
Investigators say the robber asked to see the earrings and snatched them from a saleswoman’s hands before running out a nearby door into the parking lot.
Carona said investigators are trying to recover the earrings but predicted success. “If the earrings are still around, we will find them,” he said.
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