Calif. Man Admits to $2.6 Million Smash-and-Grab Jewelry Robbery He Documented on Instagram

Mar. 15, 2025

Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles was boarded up on March 23, 2022, in the hours following the jewelry heist.Photo:Richard Vogel/AP

Richard Vogel/AP

A California man has admitted to taking part in a lucrative smash-and-grab jewelry heist in Beverly Hills, which authorities say he later bragged about on Instagram.

Two days after the heist, Ladell Tharpe allegedly posted to Instagram a group of men partying with cash.United States Attorney of the Central District of California

United States Attorney of the Central District of California

Among the items he admitted to stealing — in front of employees and customers — were “at least 19 bracelets, seven pairs of earrings, four necklaces, a pair of obelisks, eight rings, and 20 watches," according to the plea agreement.

Tharpe admitted to conducting surveillance and acting as a lookout, per the 17-page agreement.

In one photo, Tharpe was allegedly pictured with a group of men “all holding large stacks of cash,” per the complaint. In another Tharpe allegedly posted a photograph of a man holding “an extremely large stack of rubber banded cash” captioned per the complaint “#MOOD,” and a third depicted reams of bills and was captioned “BENZES & TRACKHAWKS,” in a likely reference to luxury vehicles.

On March 25, 2022, Ladell Tharpe allegedly bragged on Instagram about his “Robbery Gang.".United States Attorney of the Central District of California

Investigators later tracked the phones of Tharpe, as well as Jimmy Lee Vernon III and Deshon James Bell — who have bothpleaded guiltyto one count of Hobbs Act robbery — toward the crime scene.

On the day of the burglary, surveillance footage caught five people get out of the vehicles – all dressed in sweatpants and sweatshirts with “hoods up” and “all holding various tools,” including crowbars, per the complaint.

Vernon’s phone then dropped from his sweatpants pocket as the men allegedly smashed through the display case, per the cited footage. (Seven days later, Vernon allegedly contacted his probation officer to change his contact number.)

Long Beach police also contacted Beverly Hills police, noting that the “modus operandi of the robbery matched several smash and grabs in Long Beach in recent weeks,” per the complaint. Long Beach police suggested that Tharpe might be involved.

Tharpe – who faces as much as 20 years in federal prison – is slated for sentencing under Judge George H Wu on January 6, 2025 at 8:00 a.m. His lawyer, Patrick William McLaughlin, did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Bell was sentenced in February to one year and one day behind bars and ordered to pay back the more than $2 million in restitution, per prosecutors. Vernon is slated for sentencing Dec. 5.

source: people.com