Pickups Used to Ram Doors : Theft Ring Preys on Video Stores

Police and sheriff’s detectives in Ventura County said Tuesday that they will begin coordinating investigations into a spate of burglaries in which thieves have rammed pickup trucks through the doors of electronics and video shops. The most recent one occurred about 6:30 a.m. Monday in Ventura.

Shops Heavily Damaged

Authorities said the thefts follow a pattern: Pickup trucks or cars stolen from the Los Angeles area are smashed into the stores in the morning and video cassette recorders and video cameras are stolen.

Investigators estimate about $50,000 worth of merchandise has been stolen in eight similar burglaries during the last few weeks. Damage to the stores themselves has been in the thousands of dollars, although no reliable estimates are available.

All the burglaries have been in cities along the Ventura Freeway corridor, and have taken place within the jurisdictions of the Ventura and Oxnard police departments and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees Camarillo and Thousand Oaks. There are no suspects.

Thor Audio Video on East Avenida de Los Arboles in Thousand Oaks was burglarized about 6 a.m. Saturday after a vehicle believed to be a yellow pickup or a blue van rammed through the store’s rear door, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Freeman. Thirteen video cassette recorders with an estimated value of $7,200 were taken.

“They put the car up against the door and then pumped the gas,” Freeman said.

$13,300 in Gear

In the Camarillo burglary, about $13,300 in video gear was stolen from C & W Video on Lantana Street, Sheriff’s Detective Greg Whitesell said.

One store in Oxnard, Authorized TV & Appliance, has been hit three times in recent weeks, said Oxnard Police Detective Lee Wilcox. No estimate of loss was available.

In Ventura, two stores were hit Monday with a stolen pickup truck, and another was raided Jan. 9, Ventura Police Sgt. Mike Goth said.