LITTLE ROCK—Robbers attacked two different diamond salesmen traveling through the South only two days apart from each other, stealing an estimated $1 million worth of jewels in thefts detectives describe as very similar.

The parking lot robberies, one at a hotel in Nashville, Tenn., the other at a strip mall in Pine Bluff, both targeted jewelry couriers who flew into distant airports, then rented cars to travel to their sales. Both salesmen told police the attacks happened quickly, with one jeweler even losing the diamonds hidden away inside his socks.

“This has never happened around here before,” said Arless Hudgins, deputy chief of the Pine Bluff Police Department.

Hudgins said Yair Gavrielli, 47, of Los Angeles traveled Thursday to Pine Bluff to make a sales call on B&J Jewelers in the Oak Park Village Shopping Center. Gavrielli flew into Dallas and drove a rental car to Little Rock and later Pine Bluff—likely followed by the two men who would attack him, Hudgins said.

Gavrielli parked his car in the strip mall’s lot Thursday afternoon, when he said a gray sport-utility vehicle pulled up behind him. Gavrielli told officers two men wearing hoods and masks jumped out of the car, armed with knives.

The men broke a window of the rental car, demanding his keys, Gavrielli said. He said the two men opened the car’s trunk and took out diamonds there, then struggled with him.

A police report shows Gavrielli told responding officers the two men pulled off his socks and took diamonds he hid there. Other witnesses told police the men sped off in their SUV, the license plates covered by a blue cloth.

Officers reported Gavrielli suffered what appeared to be a small knife wound to his back, as well as scratches to his hands and face from the struggle. Hudgins said his officers gave Gavrielli a ride back to Little Rock that night.

That robbery came two days after another attack in Nashville. There, police say Shahab Ebrahimi, 49, of New York flew to Memphis and visited several cities to make sales calls. Tuesday night, Ebrahimi pulled into a Nashville hotel parking lot for the night and two men drove up behind him in a Pontiac Grand Prix.

Nashville police said Ebrahimi told officers the two men smashed out his car’s window and stole the wheeled briefcase containing his diamonds.

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said detectives suspect the two men had been following Ebrahimi for some time before the robbery.

“The salesman said he had not told anyone where he was going to stay,” Aaron said. “His arrival into Nashville came after visiting three other cities that day.”

In both robberies, the salesmen reported $500,000 worth of stones stolen.

“The M.O. certainly fits,” Hudgins said.

Gavrielli also said his attackers spoke Spanish—potentially signaling the robbers could be part of what the Federal Bureau of Investigations has dubbed “South American Theft Groups.” A recent bulletin from the bureau described the groups as crewed by illegal immigrants from countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Agents say the robbers stake out traveling salesman and jewelry shows, sometimes traveling across the country for scores.

The salesmen make tempting targets, often traveling alone and carrying high-dollar stones. The Jewelers’ Security Alliance, which tracks the jewelry crimes, said traveling salesmen lost $39.5 million in stones last year alone in robberies and thefts.