HIALEAH, Fla. – Hialeah police arrested a mother and son Tuesday who they said stole over $800,000 worth of jewelry during an armed robbery last month.
According to Lt. Eddie Rodriguez, of the Hialeah Police Department, the armed robbery happened around 1:45 p.m. on Sept. 16 at a beauty salon near the 7700 block of West 28th Avenue.
Authorities said Lourdes Diaz, 55, and Julian Flores, 24, both of Naples, composed a “complex plan” to rob the victim of her jewelry as she was leaving her job.
According to an arrest report from Hialeah police, the victim was exiting the beauty salon when she was approached by Flores, who authorities say was wearing all-black clothing, a facemask and had a gun.
The report said while inside the beauty salon where the victim worked, Flores began to pull on the luggage with jewelry inside and demanded the victim to let go of it while hitting her hands with the gun.
The victim, “in fear for her life,” began to scream for help as she held on to the luggage, the report stated.
Police said Flores began to pistol-whip the victim multiple times, hitting her on her mouth and the back of the head, which caused her to fall back on the ground.
Authorities said the victim suffered an injury from being pistol-whipped when Flores fired his gun.
As the victim attempted to gain possession of the luggage, police said Flores fired one shot, causing the victim to let go of it.
Hialeah police released surveillance video of the armed robbery that showed the masked thief, who police identified as Flores, loading the luggage with stolen jewelry into a white Chevy Equinox before driving away.
After further investigation, detectives said the Chevy Equinox’s license plate was previously attached to a Black Ford Edge SUV that was near the scene of the robbery.
Investigators said after searching the license plate, they discovered that the car was rented by Diaz from the Enterprise rental car company at Miami International Airport.
On Tuesday, detectives said they received a GOS notification from Diaz’s cellphone, which allowed police to conduct a traffic stop in the area of Northwest 93rd Court and Northwest 120th Terrace in Hialeah Gardens.
Police said before taking Diaz into custody, they patted her down and located two plastic baggies with gold chains with price tags attached to them, which was consistent with the jewelry that was taken from the reported armed robbery.
Hialeah detectives were eventually able to arrest both suspects and recover over 1,300 pieces of jewelry, totaling over $800,000 in value, according to Rodriguez.
Police are urging the public to be careful when giving any information on products you decide to sell.
According to jail records, Diaz and Flores are both facing one count each of armed robbery with a deadly weapon.
Diaz and Flores appeared in Miami-Dade bond court Wednesday, where a judge ordered them to stay away from the victim and the beauty salon.
As of Wednesday, both suspects were being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.