Police were trailing jewelry thieves

Prosecutors on Friday told a judge that five people stole $800,000 worth of jewelry outside a downtown Arlington Heights store on Wednesday when they attacked a jewelry salesman from New York.

And they said police already were trailing the people when the attack occurred, but neither officers nor prosecutors would comment on what led up to the arrest.

Ricardo Montaivan, 25, of Chicago; Eliu A. Alverio, 42, of Chicago; Vanessa Ortiz, 19, of Chicago; and Jhoana Rancan, 35, of Chicago, were charged with vehicle invasion and obstruction of justice. Ana Yolima Sanchez, 28, of Miami was charged with vehicular invasion only.

The defendants were first observed in three parked cars by police near Raphael Jewelers in Glenview, said Lynn Palac, assistant state's attorney.

Police watched the victim, a jewelry salesman from New York, leave the store with a backpack filled with bracelets and rings.

The man drove off, heading to Keswick Jewelers, at 69 S. Evergreen Ave. in Arlington Heights, with the three cars following him.

When the salesman got to the Arlington Heights store, Montaivan and Alverio, wearing hooded sweatshirts, got out of their cars, smashed the front and rear windows of the victim's car and grabbed the backpack, Palac said.

After he was robbed, the salesman jumped out of his car in an attempt to get the jewelry back, but forgot his car was still in gear. The car then backed over the sidewalk and knocked down a light pole, Arlington Heights police Cmdr. Kenneth Galinski said.

Police apprehended the group shortly afterward at Northwest Highway and Pine Street.

Bond was set between $150,000 and $200,000 for each defendant.

The next court date is 9 a.m. Dec. 21 at the Rolling Meadow courthouse.