3 Arrested as Suspects in Major Fencing Ring

A Sepulveda man who police called one of the major fences in the San Fernando Valley was arrested Tuesday for his alleged role in a ring that sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stolen power tools and electronic equipment at swap meets, authorities said.

Kenneth Shaw, 55, a former construction worker, was arrested at a storage area in the rear of a Sepulveda plumbing store, where police said he kept stolen merchandise he bought from drug addicts.

Also arrested, in La Crescenta, on suspicion of receiving stolen property, were Charles Blair, 72, and his fiance, Sheryl Blalock, 26, both of Bakersfield. Police said they would buy stolen merchandise from Shaw, re-label the goods and sell them to tool shops or at swap meets.

‘Fixture at Swap Meets’

The fencing ring had been operating at least four years, according to Sgt. Don Kitchen of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Bureau Major Crime Task Force.

“Blair has been a fixture at swap meets all over Bakersfield and Kern County,” Kitchen said. “We confiscated four storage lockers full of expensive power tools that he had, plus some merchandise he had in a pickup truck.”

Police said merchandise valued conservatively at $40,000 was recovered Tuesday from Blair and Shaw, including guns, videocassette recorders, cameras and power tools.

Kitchen said Shaw would sit at bars and arrange to buy merchandise from drug addicts, then store the merchandise behind the Blixt Brothers Plumbing Service in the 8700 block of Parthenia Place. Police said the owners of the plumbing business were not involved in the fencing operation.

Shaw, who was released after posting $1,000 bail, said Tuesday that he may have bought the merchandise confiscated by police. “But I didn’t know the stuff was hot,” he said. “I don’t know anybody in Bakersfield, and I bought a lot of the stuff at swap meets. I don’t know what the police are talking about, as far as me being a major fence. If I were a major fence, I’d have enough money to afford a lawyer, and I can’t.”

Bail of $1,000 also was set for Blair and Blalock, who were being held in Van Nuys Jail.