ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Detectives are looking for a man who posed as a doctor and stole a $50,000 ring from an Orange County jewelry store. Workers say he asked to see the ring at Bay Hill Jewelers (see map) Thursday and then took off with it.
This latest robbery is the third time the Dr. Phillips jeweler on West Sand Lake Road has been hit in the past five years. Each of the robberies happened right before a big golf tournament in March when the store is stocked with its most expensive items.
WFTV learned that none of the cases have been solved. There's store video of all three robberies and, in two cases, the thieves were buzzed in the front security door.
SURVEILLANCE: Raw Video | See Images RAW INTERVIEW: Worker Describes Robbery
So far, no arrests and none of the jewelry has been recovered.
Bay Hill Jewelers' security video (video | images), which the store released directly to WFTV, shows a man in scrubs and spectacles being shown expensive jewelry. He then runs off with one of the pieces about seven minutes after he walked into the store in the middle of the afternoon Thursday.
"He goes to point at another ring, but before I got to see what he was pointing at that's where he grabbed it and ran out the door," saleswoman Robyn Perrotte told WFTV (watch interview).
The suspect told Perrotte he's a radiologist at Arnold Palmer Hospital, new in town and about to get engaged.
50K Ring Stolen pic 030510 The ring was a $50,000 piece, 3.5 carat brilliant cut, yellow diamond and encrusted with smaller diamonds. He came in from one direction, went out the other and, in the video, he is seen running to a gray minivan that drives off.
"We ran off after him and saw the getaway car and the person in the getaway car," Perrotte said.
Last year, before the Bay Hill Invitational Golf Tournament, the store was broken into, cabinets smashed and a quarter-of-a-million dollars worth of jewelry was stolen, all in four minutes.
Also, in late February 2005, two men dressed in delivery uniforms robbed the store, again on a weekday afternoon after forcing a pregnant employee to get face down on the floor. One of them mentioned the owner's estranged husband and where he was from. The owner claims she was stalked and threatened for weeks at that time.
The owner also claims she won't be reimbursed by her insurance company for Thursday's robbery, because her saleswoman failed to get identification from the robber before showing him the ring.
Investigators said they found a palm print on the door, which they hope will help solve the case.