May 20, 2008, 9:12PM  Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Officials hope jewel heist images will help investigation

The FBI on Tuesday released surveillance images from the site of a jewelry heist last week where gunmen made off with $1.4 million in diamonds.

Some of the images, taken from a surveillance camera at the Waffle House restaurant on Westheimer near Hayes, show a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt with three skulls across the top of the back. Officials are hoping someone will recognize the sweatshirt and identify the robbers.

The jewelry heist Thursday was the fourth in the Houston area since April 28, when three or four men attacked a salesman from New York in a Holiday Inn Express parking lot in the 24000 block of Interstate 45 North in Montgomery County. Robbers took the dealer's wallet and merchandise, worth about $600,000.

Robbers made off with $250,000 worth of precious stones in their next attack on May 1, targeting a traveling salesman who picked up his wares from Box and Box Jewelry, 2414 Rice Blvd.

On May 14, robbers took about $1 million worth of jewelry and gems from a salesman who stopped for gas at a Chevron station on Bissonnet near Kirby.

The thieves left in a Mitsubishi Galant — the same type of car used in the Waffle House heist on Thursday. In that case, three masked men followed the salesman into the restaurant and pistol whipped him, officials said.

The four cases are related, FBI officials said.