Jewelry store leaves mall with the goods

The owner guaranteed to return customers' property, but neither they nor police can reach him.

By ANNE LINDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 10, 2000

PINELLAS PARK -- A couple of weeks ago, Debbie Hall dropped off her engagement ring and two pairs of diamond earrings for cleaning and repairs at Ramos Jewelry in ParkSide mall.

When she went to pick up her property Thursday, she found a closed sign rather than her jewelry. There was no forwarding address, just a beeper number. When Hall tried to page owner Juan Ramos, she got no reply.

"There were more people than myself in there staring at a blank store saying, "What happened?' " Hall said Friday. "Three days ago, there was a store there. I feel like I just gave away my jewelry. I'm just trying to get hold of him to ask for my jewelry back. . . . I'm so upset."

Hall said her jewelry is worth about $1,000. The worst loss, she said, is the ring. The gold nugget ring has three diamonds, one almost half a carat.

"It was my original engagement ring," Hall said. "I told him when I handed it to him, this was important to me, it's got a lot of sentimental value."

Hall celebrates her 21st wedding anniversary this Friday.

"I had to call my husband and say, "Are you sitting down?' " she said. "Happy anniversary to me."

Ramos guaranteed last week that he would return everyone's property. It would take a while, he said Friday, because he has more than 800 customers to contact and he's having to do it by himself.

"I'm not going to steal that stuff. I'm going to return it," Ramos said. "I want to open a store again."

But Pinellas Park police said Monday that Ramos had not returned their phone calls. Six people have now filed complaints, said Detective R. W. Cook. Hall, of Largo, said she had been a Ramos customer for three years and never had had problems. Still, she dropped by the store every other day to check on the work's progress.

During those visits, she noticed that the display jewelry was disappearing. When she asked about it, she was told not to worry because the store was in the middle of inventory.

But Ramos was kicked out of ParkSide, 7200 U.S. 19 N, for failure to pay rent, said Harold Dull, the mall's general manager.

"I personally spoke with him, and he seemed to be very forthright in that he will get back in touch with all the clients he had," Dull said.

Dull said ParkSide has an obligation to help people who left jewelry at the store, but the mall does not have a lot of information.

"The forwarding address I have is not an accurate address," Dull said.

The mall has three phone numbers for Ramos. One belonged to someone else. That leaves customers with two possible ways to contact Ramos: his pager number, (813) 350-2235, or one with an answering mailbox, (813) 244-0863.

Ramos said last week that he planned to return Hall's property as well as the jewelry of about 799 other customers.

"I'm in a bigger hurry than them to get rid of their stuff. Believe me, I want to deliver them," Ramos said.

Ramos said he planned to take the jewels to a friend's store in Pinellas Park. But he said he did not have the friend's permission to publicize her business, and that he did not want the friend to take the blame for his problems.

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