Beverly Hills experienced two violent crimes on June 15, including an attempted carjacking in the 500 block of North Beverly Drive and a strong-arm robbery of an expensive watch at North Doheny Drive and Civic Center Drive. The crimes come at a time when overall crime remains down but have nonetheless raised concerns over their brazenness–especially following the midday armed robbery of another high-end watch from a patron at Il Pastaio.
“It’s very troubling to have a robbery and a carjacking on the same evening, no matter what the crime stats say,” Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) Acting Captain Max Subin told the Courier.
The watch theft took place on Tuesday night near the border of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. Four suspects accosted the victim and stole a watch that Subin initially valued at $300,000. No firearm was used. Subin could not specify the make and model of the watch at the time of the interview.
Despite the similarities to other recent robberies of luxury watches, Subin said there was no connection. However, he said the incident might be connected to another robbery that happened within the last month on the 300 block of South Elm.
On May 28, around 10 p.m., a resident was approached on their walk home by two suspects. The suspects “presented a handgun and they took personal property” including a phone and wallet, Subin said.
Subin could not give the evidence connecting the two crimes, citing the ongoing investigation, but did say that “the city has a lot of cameras around town and other electronic evidence that we’ve been able to uncover.”
An attempted carjacking also took place on June 15 in the 500 block of North Beverly Drive. According to Subin, “A witness blocked in the vehicle and didn’t let the vehicle drive away.” At that point, the suspect fled on foot to the 500 block of North Canon Drive. The witness then directed law enforcement to his hiding location “and a canine search was conducted.” The Los Angeles Police Department assisted in the search with an airship.
“It’s very troubling because they are crimes of violence and we want the community to feel safe either walking at night, taking the dog for a walk, or enjoying the sights in Beverly Hills,” Subin said of the incidents.
Subin pointed to the most recent crime statistics from the department for the month of May, showing a year-over-year decline of 8% in overall crime. Crime has remained down each month compared to last year for each month so far, fluctuating between 5% and 13%. “It’s a couple of percent points, but it means something to us. The productivity of all the officers plus the security guards in the armed security,” he said. “We deploy based on crimes, we deploy based on what’s happening in the area. If we see a spike in robberies, we deploy, if we see a spike in auto thefts, we’ll deploy.”
