Four Seasons heist gets better

You had to expect that the reported loss of "millions" in jewelry by billionaire Jose "Pepe" Fanjul would fall, and it did — to maybe $40,000 worth taken in the Oscar weekend robbery. But the crime itself just gets more interesting. Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton report for the L.A. Times that the LAPD suspects it's the same robber who schmoozed his way into hotel rooms at the Wilshire Grand and downtown Marriott, and into the Maccabi Electra dressing room at Staples Center.

On Tuesday, detectives were scrutinizing videotapes from the Four Seasons, comparing them with footage from other burglaries to determine whether the Rico Suave burglar had struck again.

There are some tantalizing similarities, starting with the slicked-back hair and tall, thin build. Like the other crimes, the Four Seasons heist involved the thief's playing a character and charming his victims. And as in several other robberies, this one involved a victim frequently featured in Spanish-language media, leading some detectives to believe the suspect uses those sources to track potential targets when they come to L.A....

"He has all the making of that rare breed of sophisticated cat burglar," said LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon, chief of Central Area detectives. "It sounds very similar based on physical appearance and MO to the same guy we have been trying to find since October.

They also think he's connected to the theft of laptop computers in Downtown, including one belonging to an, uh, LAPD detective.