Four suspects arrested in connection with local burglaries
[UPDATED 2/18 5:01 p.m.] Although burglaries continue to occur in the Foothills — including three reported in the past week — four suspects have been arrested in connection with their possible involvement in local break-ins during recent months, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Crescenta Valley station.
In early January, two men were apprehended following a home burglary, after nearby residents saw them enter the home’s window and reported the suspicious activity to the sheriff’s department. While at the home, deputies received notice that two white males matching the suspects’ descriptions were seen on Montrose Avenue.
An immediate containment of the area by deputies resulted in the capture of the suspects, according to Crescenta Valley Station Captain Bill Song. Both suspects were Montrose residents believed to have been acquainted with the burglary victim, according to a sheriff’s report.
“They were caught with stolen goods from the house,” Song said Tuesday. “They may be associated with some of the burglaries in La Cañada. We’re looking into it.”
Two more male suspects were arrested in separate traffic stops conducted by sheriff’s deputies on Feb. 9 and Feb. 11, Song reported. Initially pulled over for observed traffic violations, subsequent searches of their vehicles’ interiors turned up items believed to have been stolen, one from a La Cañada home burglary and the other possibly from a local hardware store.
Sgt. Hector Mancinas, a detective with the Crescenta Valley Station, said Tuesday that investigators were still piecing together a larger picture of how the crimes unfolded and whether the captured suspects may be implicated in other recent burglaries.
“Right now, it’s kind of tough to say. We’re still investigating, and we’re still trying to tie-in all these burglaries,” Mancinas said.
Meanwhile, city and law enforcement officials are hopeful the recent arrests will help deter or diminish the number of future incidents.
“Even from past arrests, we’re getting new intelligence all the time,” Song said. “That’s how we try to stay on top of and ahead of [criminals].”
In a city release issued Saturday, La Cañada Mayor Mike Davitt called keeping crime at bay a partnership between the sheriff’s department and members of the public.
“I am thrilled to see these perpetrators caught and brought to justice after their illegal activity in our community,” Davitt stated in the release, encouraging residents to contact authorities the moment they see suspicious activity of any kind.
“The Sheriff’s Department is a very professional police force, but they cannot do their jobs alone. We as residents have to support them with information,” he added.
According to crime reports issued by the CV Station on Wednesday, a home on Meadowview Drive near La Cañada Flintridge Country Club was burglarized last Friday. Taken in that incident were a floor safe, a handgun, passports, pieces of fine and costume jewelry, as well as a savings bond. On Saturday, a resident of Lombardy Drive reported that several bank checks that he’d left on the front seat of a car parked in his garage had been stolen.
In the third incident in the past week, a Flintridge Avenue resident reported that someone had burglarized her home sometime between Saturday morning and Monday evening. Closets were ransacked at her home and leather handbags, including a Michael Kors and a Ferragamo bag, were taken, as was a piece of luggage.
No witnesses to any of the recent burglaries could be found by investigators.
