How to Catch A Criminal: Jewel Fools

Leadership is a rare and highly sought after quality. In your law enforcement career, you will work for supervisors, and you will work for leaders. Sometimes those people are one and the same, other times not. You may know highly capable leaders who never achieve higher rank but can command a team with ease thanks to their knowledge and experience. In other cases, you will work for a supervisor whose idea of leading is “You do it. Because I said so. I’ll be at the office.” Cleary, the former is the preferred style of leadership in Law Enforcement. Without the confidence of your squad behind you, it is practically impossible to further the mission of your agency. For these same reasons, competent leaders are highly effective in organized crime as well. With a group of loyal underlings at their disposal, Dons, Underbosses, Capos, and the like, run their organizations like a well-oiled machine. With a strong leader at the helm, even the average crook can achieve infamy.

In December 2010, a well-dressed man entered the Marguilis jewelry store in Portland, Oregon. He appeared to be the usual client, looking for an engagement ring for his girlfriend. He had an eye for the finer diamonds and asked to compare a few different pieces. The saleswoman allowed him to look over a couple of rings and explained the differences between them as the customer held them up to his eye, studying them carefully. Then, without warning, he bolted for the door, with both rings in hand. By the time the staff members reached the door, the man was nowhere to be seen. He vanished from the street in seconds, indicating he had the perfect escape route mapped out ahead of time. The wealthy customer act netted the unknown man $150,000 in fine diamonds. With little to go on but grainy footage of an average looking man in a suit, detectives were looking for a needle in a haystack. However, once “be on the lookout” bulletins went out across the nation, the needle surfaced in no time.

A Crimestoppers tip came in from North Carolina that the man from the Portland diamond heist resembled Victor Lupis. Lupis was on probation in North Carolina and did not have a history of these types of crimes. Though it was unlikely Lupis traveled all the way across the country to steal a pair of rings, Detectives decided it was worth a shot to interview him, even if just to cross a lead off their list. Incredibly, Lupin confessed to the larceny and was charged accordingly. The detectives wisely gave him the opportunity to keep talking in exchange for leniency, and Victor was happy to take advantage.  Lupin explained that during the Marguilis job, his only task was to get in, get the rings, and get out, and he hadn’t worked alone. The brains behind the operations was a man named Michael Young, working in conjunction with his friend Ernest Remor, and a couple other small time thieves. This band of jewel snatchers had been very busy, pulling off similar jobs across the country.

Michael Young was a charismatic and confident man, who presented himself as something of a Mafia Boss. He wore designer clothes and jewelry, flashed stacks of cash, and bragged about nonexistent Mob connections. After spending time in prison for a botched diamond heist of his own, Young got wise. He decided he and his good friend Ernest Remor should take on the roles of criminal masterminds, rather than cat burglars. If they could con a team of thieves into doing the heavy lifting for them, they could minimize their risk while maximizing profit. Young and Remor sought out younger men with little to lose and promised them the world. As a good leader should, Michael Young even offered benefits to his troops, such as taking care of their legal bills if they got caught and sending money to support their families if they ended up doing time behind bars.

Young also took steps to keep the danger of being caught low. He would meticulously map out the paths in and out of the stores, scope out employees and security measures ahead of time, and have a stolen getaway vehicle ready and waiting. The person assigned to steal the diamonds would enter the store and spin a yarn about wanting to buy a lovely gift for their spouse or girlfriend, which would put staff at ease. Once the diamonds came out, the thief would swipe them off the counter or out of the salesperson’s hands and bolt out the door, through the escape route, and into the getaway car, which they would soon abandon and switch to a clean, legitimate vehicle and leave the area. The crew would communicate via prepaid disposable cellphones to prevent tracking. Young was quite meticulous when it came to keeping the law off their backs. For instance, after Victor Lupis was safely in the getaway car, he called Michael Young and told him he touched the front door with his bare hands and may have left fingerprints behind. Young promptly entered Marguilis Jewelers while staff members and customers were reeling from the theft, and casually wiped the front door, destroying the evidence that would set Detectives on their trail. After each heist, Ernest Remor, Young’s right-hand man, would hop on a plane to Philadelphia, where he would meet with a shady Jeweler who was willing to buy the hot diamonds and keep his mouth shut. Remor would then meet up with the rest of the team and distribute everyone’s cut while they moved to a new area of the country and planned the next job.

After the Portland heist, Victor Lupis bowed out of the crew because things were getting too risky. The crew had to revert to their previous con artist, Jack Cannon. Cannon had been lying low since skipping bail after a fingerprint tied him to another six-figure diamond heist in Florida. Using a wanted man as the face of their operations upped the risk considerably, especially after a scorned Lupis provided detectives with the roster of Young’s crew. Once he had been charged with the Marguilis theft, Lupis realized Michael Young’s promises were worthless, despite him earning the gang hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Using his statements, Portland detectives were able to work with investigators from across the country to track the Young’s moves over the previous year, across 8 states, and more than 20 heists, with a total value of nearly $4 million in stolen diamonds. The only thing left to do was get one step ahead of Young and Remor. That day came when Jack Cannon entered Saxon’s Fine Jewelers in Bend, Oregon, in April of 2011. This time, he employed the use of props to sell his story to the staff. He brought along a bottle of wine and said his wife would be meeting him there soon, where he would surprise her with the wine and a new diamond ring. He also handed over a business card to show the staff he was a well-to-do businessman. Once he picked out a few pieces, Cannon set down the wine bottle and snatched the diamonds, bolting out the door before anyone could stop him. He was swift, but careless, leaving the fingerprint covered bottle behind.

The bottle was traced back to a local grocery store and the number on the business card returned to a prepaid phone. Detectives quickly determined the cellphone was purchased by Ernest Remor just prior to the heist at that same store. This meant the crew was likely still in Oregon, and there was a chance to catch them before they moved again. With the help of the FBI, Young and Remor were traced to a hideout in Salem, Oregon, and in no time all five members of the crew were in custody. Each member of Young’s team ended up getting multi-year sentences after their cases played out in Federal Court. The harshest sentence, of 30 years in prison, came down on Jack Cannon, the man who executed most of the heists. The Philadelphia jeweler who happily bought the stolen goods got seven years for his troubles as well. Michael Young commanded his underlings like a General ordering his troops, and they all happily carried out his orders. The inexperienced thieves were so taken by his confidence, style, and promises, he could have lead them anywhere, and that apparently included prison.