Gold fever sweeps the criminal underworld in the US

Gus Rodriguez (seen here) looks more like a soldier than a jewelry store security guard, with a Beretta handgun strapped to his bulletproof vest, shades wrapped around his shaved head and pepper spray bulging from a breast pocket.

"I am not afraid," the former Ecuadorean military man says, patting his pistol. "They call me Rambo."

After a summer of brazen attacks on gold stores, parts of downtown Los Angeles now look more like a militarized zone than a commercial corridor.

Text and Images: AP