Police: Armed Robbers Followed Jewelry Dealer From Flea Market
(CBS) -- A suburban senior opened her door to see a friend being attacked by jewel thieves.
Even though the resident was threatened by gunmen, that didn't stop her from helping police catch the bad guys, CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports.
The "bad people" Kathleen Snyder talks about are Juan Ramos and Saul Sandoval. Riverside police say the admitted gang members robbed and beat up Snyder's 70-year-old friend and fellow jeweler, in her driveway.
As her friend yelled for help, she called 9-1-1.
"They pulled him out of the car, they put his shirt over his head and they were beating him up," Snyder says.
"I said, 'Get out of here, go away!' and one guy says, 'You go away!' Five feet from me – the gun," she adds.
Police say Ramos and Sandoval followed Snyder's friend from the Swap O Rama flea market in Chicago, where he has a jewelry booth.
"We have on video the suspect's car, coming right behind them, within five seconds," Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel tells Le Mignot.
Video would be the pair';s undoing. Red-light cameras and surveillance at a market, captured the duo tailing Snyder's friend, all the way to her Riverside home.
"It was unbelievable. I'm still in shock that it was so great and so fast and everybody was so very kind and expedient," Snyder says.
Chief Weitzel explains: "He made a stop at a store in Berwyn, where we were able to get more video, which led us to enhancing that video, which we were able to get a license plate from."
Snyder owns Arcade Jewelers in Riverside. She says Ramos and Sandoval got away with $30,000 in jewelry from her friend.
"Some of it was mine, but at least we're still alive," she says.
Ramos is being held on $85,000 bond; Sandoval, $75,000, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office. Both have been charged with assault and armed robbery; each has an extensive criminal history, police say.
