Three busted in car burglaries

Police find loot bonanza in trio's car, including some that has not yet been reported stolen.

December 07, 2011|By Daniel Siegal, daniel.siegal@latimes.com

Sheriff’s deputies arrested a trio of alleged car burglars in La Cañada Flintridge last Friday, and now they’re looking to find the rightful owners of the burglars’ loot.

Detective Rodger Burt said that the three men were caught in a car on Ocean View Boulevard around 2:30 a.m. Dec. 2 after the suspects committed a rash of vehicle burglaries and thefts. Burt said that he was able to link the men to two burglaries and five thefts through property recovered from their vehicle, but he thinks there are victims he has yet to identify that are still missing property.

“I was able to find some people, and then I found they didn’t even report these things, which tells me there’s probably a lot more people that didn’t report crimes that night, and we have their property,” Burt said.

According to Burt, items were stolen from unlocked cars. He said he thought other residents in the area might have had items stolen from their unlocked vehicles without realizing it.

Residents of Ocean View above Foothill Boulevard who are missing property from a vehicle, or who think their car was broken into, should call Burt at (818) 236-4014, he said.

Burt said that the suspects were apprehended when an Ocean View resident heard his car’s alarm go off, discovered that the car had a broken window and then noticed a suspicious car parked up the block. The man called the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, and deputies approached the suspicious car, finding the suspects and a large amount of stolen property inside.

The men, a pair of Sun Valley residents and a Tujunga resident, were booked at the CV station. Burt said two of the suspects were on parole and likely would be headed back to prison for violating the conditions of their paroles, and that the third suspect was still being held on bond.

Burt said although these suspects were caught, residents should still be careful, as the level of vehicle thefts and burglaries has risen of late.

“I think we’re getting hit from all sides, here. These are not the [only] people who are doing all these burglaries,” said Burt.

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