TARZANA : 2 Robbers Take $500,000 in Jewels From Home

Two robbers, who may have followed a jewelry broker from a Downtown jewel market, broke into a Tarzana home and made off five minutes later with $500,000 in cut diamonds and sapphires, police reported Tuesday.

Police said jewelry broker Indra Jhaveri, 44, of Arizona, may have been followed Monday night from the Downtown Jewelry Mart--where he had been trying to drum up business earlier in the day--to the home of David Rahima, 42, another jewelry broker, in the 19100 block of Santa Rita Street.

Two men, one armed with a semiautomatic pistol, knocked on the door of the house, police said. When Rahima opened the door, they pushed him to the floor, taped the mouth and hands of the screaming Jhaveri, grabbed the precious stones on the table and fled, police said. The stones were uninsured, according to Jhaveri.

Police were searching for two white men in their 30s, one about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 160 pounds, with brown hair and eyes, the other about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, also with brown hair and eyes.