eBay cracks the Case
tiny dancer
Slick operation stole $6 million from Raleigh to Alabama
By ANDREA WEIGL, Staff Writer
RALEIGH - Two people, one a former Florida police detective, have been
convicted of operating a sophisticated burglary ring that resulted in the
theft of $6 million worth of jewelry, cash and checks across the Southeast,
the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.
After a trial that ended Friday in Greenville, jurors convicted John Mark
Collins, who worked for 16 years at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office,
and Robert Marshall Serrano on charges of conspiracy, money laundering and
transporting stolen good across state lines. U.S. District Judge Malcolm
Howard will sentence both men Dec. 16.
Three other men already had pleaded guilty to being part of the ring.
Among Triangle stores targeted in May and June 1999 were Mark Andrews
Jewelers in Apex, where $127,000 was stolen, and Winn-Dixie stores in
Raleigh, Durham and Apex, where $48,000 in cash, checks and stamps were
taken.
The pair was also charged with an attempted burglary of Land's Jewelers in
Raleigh.
In a tale that one would expect from Hollywood, prosecutors say trial
testimony showed that in 1996, a few months after retiring, Collins joined
forces with one of his former informants, William Anthony Granims. For
years, Granims led a ring that had been committing burglaries. They involved
flying into a city on a private Cessna plane, scoping out targets and
performing nighttime burglaries by disarming alarms and cracking safes.
Investigators broke the case when a customer of Mark Andrews Jewelers saw
his antique pocket watch on eBay, an Internet auction site. It had been
stolen from the Cary store. The store owner contacted the FBI, whose
investigators were led by the eBay listing to Serrano, who, prosecutors say,
was fencing the stolen goods.
"That's what broke the case -- just dumb luck," said Assistant U.S. Attorney
Dennis Duffy.
Duffy and FBI Agent Jim Page built a case against Collins and Serrano by
matching receipts from Serrano to the ringleaders; tying calls on a prepaid
phone card from a pay phone outside one of the Winn-Dixie stores to Collins;
and tracking car rentals by the men in the same cities and at the same time
as the burglaries.
Duffy said about 50 witnesses testified during the eight-day trial that
detailed the rise and fall of professional burglars authorities say are
responsible for stealing more than $6 million from Raleigh to Birmingham,
Ala., since the 1980s.
"This is an extraordinary law enforcement effort," said U.S. Attorney Frank
Whitney, the chief federal prosecutor in Eastern North Carolina. "My
compliments to Dennis Duffy and Special Agent Jim Page. It wouldn't have
happened without their long hours and attention to detail."
Granims also was charged, along with Ronald Jay Myers Jr., 37, and Michael
Clarence Ornelas, 39, who was considered a mastermind at disabling alarms
and safe-cracking. Granims, Myers and Ornelas, all of the Palm Beach area,
already have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and testified against the
other two.
In an interview Tuesday, Duffy laid out the evidence presented at trial:
In 1984, Collins met Granims, who soon became his informant. Later, Collins
recommended Granims to be licensed as a private investigator. The men owned
a security system company together.
After Collins retired, he was recruited to join Granims' private
investigative agency. The agency also employed Ornelas.
Authorities said the men were methodical about covering their tracks. They
would rent rooms under aliases. They would pay cash for hotel rooms and
rental cars. They would wear BellSouth uniforms to avoid suspicion when they
pulled up behind buildings to check out alarm system wiring the day before
the burglaries. They would wear shoes two sizes too big to throw off police
on any footprints left behind. They would erase fingerprints by discharging
fire extinguishers or pouring Kool-Aid on the areas where they touched.
At night, they would disconnect the phone lines, disable the stores' alarms
and proceed to break into the safe.
Serrano's attorney, Kelly Greene of New Bern, said Serrano wasn't aware the
goods were stolen. Collins' attorney, John Tierney of West Palm Beach, said
his client was duped by Granims and Ornelas, who asked him to provide
security while they traveled to various cities to buy jewelry for their own
legitimate pawn shops and jewelry stores.
Granims, Ornelas and Myers are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30 in
Greenville.