Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 5

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1998 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS PAGES gtrMq) Mobile burglars do drive-in jobs by April Adamson 5 4'- i Feds, local cops and the mob are looking for Alan Golder "We believe these are Telated." said Duly. "We have detectives working with Philadelphia to see if we can crack this thing." At Foot Locker, where crooks smashed a window and door with their vehicle last month and stole $11,000 in sport clothing, plywood still covered the entrance last week. The store, which opened Dec. 24, has been hit twice since January, according to police. Thieves simply case out the merchandise in the front window, including $100 sweatsuits and warm-up jackets, then return in the middle of the night with a sturdy car.

Sneaker Stadium, Foot Locker's neighbor in the shopping complex, was twice targeled by thugs before frustrated store employees thought up a solution. Now, a steel gate sits bolted to the store floor just behind the plate glass, deterring the curb-jumping crooks. "It had to be a truck that was doing this. I never expected this in this area," said Steve Morring. Sneaker Stadium assistant manager.

"I thought police would always be patrolling." Police said bicycle patrol cops and cruisers tool through the shopping center at all hours. Many store managers and owners said they are satisfied with the police presence. But car escapades have plagued stores from the Main Line to Center City since 1992. "We had this happening at Lord Taylor and Saks," said Keenan. "Overall, the more these thieves do this, the greater their chances of getting caught." In October 1996, fur stores on Montgomery and Lancaster avenues in Lower Merion were attacked by the car bandits.

One month later, half a dozen stores in Montgomery and Chester counties were looted the same way. Philadelphia detectives said they'd never seen lawbreakers use a car to break into a store, since steel gates outside store fronts seem to discourage the smash-and-grab thievery. To prevent additional smash-and-grab crime on the Main Line, police in Lower Merion say they are endorsing an ordinance that would give officers the ability to enter a store that has been repeatedly targeted by thugs and make suggestions for crash-proofing windows and doors. Daily News Staff Writer Knocking over a store isn't what it used to be. Forget about wearing black, cracking a safe combination and picking locks.

Today's thieves like to drive right through the front window to load up on loot, and upscale Main Line retailers along City Avenue have been favorite targets. In the past two months, two stores in the Bala Cynwyd shopping center on City Avenue have been hit four times by smash-and-grab thugs, who have stolen thousands of dollars in merchandise. The automotive hooligans have been preying on City Avenue retailers for two years, police said. Fur stores, electronic outlets and department stores have been targeted time and again, according to police. "One year they were throwing concrete through the windows," said Lower Merion Police Sgt.

Mark Keenan. "This is just the latest to get quick merchandise. They back in a car at 3 a.m. and take $10,000 worth of clothes. How long does that take?" Not very.

Often, the thieves can back through the store window, load up the car or truck with clothing, then drive out of the lot and onto City Avenue traffic before the alarm company even can notify the police, police said. "With this sneaker craze, sneakers are $100," said Lower Merion Police Superintendent Joseph Daly. "Thieves get great street value on the merchandise." So far, the crash-and-grab fad appears to center on Lower Merion, though other police departments in the region have seen crooks employ similar methods. In Lower Merion, the motoring thieves typically escape in the same vehicle they use to crash through doors and windows. They have scored more than $35,000 in clothing and shoes from the four recent City Avenue smash-ins.

They grabbed $17,000 in pricey warm-up suits from a Foot Locker last month and dozens of pairs of shoes from Sneaker Stadium worth $6,500 in school to pursue crime full-time, first hitting small businesses and then home burglaries for baubles by Faberge, and jewelry from Harry Winston and David Webb. By 21, according to Knoedelseder, Golder was stealing millions in jewels, funneling them onto the black market through a New York City jewelry store. His equipment consisted of a ski mask, large flashlight and a long screwdriver. He never carried a gun, but always wore tan Isotoner gloves, which appeared less suspicious than black ones. said Greenwich Police Capt.

James Walters. But neither" Greenwich nor Lower Merion lawmen expect a return visit anytime soon. If caught by the feds, he faces life in prison on parole violations. If caught by the Genovese crime family, it could be worse. In 1980, Golder ratted on mobsters as part of a deal for a reduced sentence in the 1978 murder of millionaire Long Island developer Lawrence Lever.

Lever was shot by a Thai national who was helping Golder rob his He also possessed an extraordinary memory. "He could draw a map of Bel-Air with every bush and culvert," said Knoedelseder. "He remembered every detail of every job." Between 1976 and 1980, the FBI estimated that Golder had stolen at least S25 million worth of gold and precious gems from the homes of some of the Golder forced Johnny Carson's ex-wife to open a safe containing jewelry mansion. Golder entered the witness protection program after naming mobsters who fenced the millions in jewelry he stole. But investigators and a former Los Angeles Times reporter who interviewed Golder for a book on his life question whether the upscale cat burglar could ever live a quiet life on the lam forsaking his it ft-) 1 1 4 ft'" III i I i A Z'r.

talent. "He always described stealing jewelry as a great high, a tremendous feeling, and he was always concerned he'd get sucked back in," said Bill Knoedelseder, whose book proposal, "Precious Metal: Confessions of a Rock 'n Roll Jewel Thief," was located by police after they recently raided Golder's abandoned New York pad. "I guess he didn't quit his night job." Working nights made Golder a wealthy man quite a change from the dilapidated wooden shack in Queens where he grew up the son of a career criminal and a waitress. He made his first heist a Matchbox car at age 6, and learned to steal what his mother could not afford to buy him. At 16, he dropped out of high richest and most famous people in America.

And after he got them, the golden-haired, blue-eyed burglar knew how to spend his ill-gotten gains. He told Knoedelseder he drove a white Lotus Esprit and hobnobbed with celebrities like John Belushi and Rod Stewart. He supped on lobster and Dom Perignon with a bevy of groupies all eager to play the next Bonnie to his Clyde. "He likes the limelight," said Keenan. "He certainly is not a shrinking violet." Knoedelseder said Golder became more brazen and confrontational as mob pressure increased to bring in bigger stones.

"He stripped a 6-carat pear-See GOLDER Page 31 i 1 SABINA PIERCE FOR THE DAILY NEWS Steel chain link barriers at the Sneaker Stadium in Bala Cynwyd.