Arrest Made on San Clemente Residential Street : Tip Leads Police to Burglary Suspect

Acting on a citizen’s tip, San Clemente police arrested a nattily dressed Fullerton man carrying a tote bag whom authorities described as a suspect in more than 30 south county residential burglaries over the last six weeks.

Robert L. Lizarraga, also known as George Z. Vasquez, 33, was arrested Tuesday afternoon on the quiet subdivision street of Calle Empale in north San Clemente after a Neighborhood Watch member called police to say that a suspicious-looking man in a white shirt and tie had come to her door claiming to be selling vacuum cleaners.

Minutes later, police officers cordoned off the area, confronting Lizarraga as he was placing a tote bag in the trunk of his brown BMW, Lt. Albert Ehlow said. Lizarraga, who was wearing a white shirt, tie and gray, pinstriped pants, tried to run away and climb a fence but was arrested after a short struggle, Ehlow said.

Bail Set at $250,000

Inside his tan and black tote bag, officers found two video recorders, a white fur stole and a loaded .22-caliber revolver--all stolen, Ehlow said. They also discovered that front doors were smashed on two houses in the 200 and 300 blocks of Calle Empale and that those homes had been burglarized, Ehlow said.

Lizarraga is being held at Orange County Jail on $250,000 bail in connection with the two burglaries Tuesday. But San Clemente and Irvine police and sheriff’s detectives are investigating his involvement in other daytime burglaries, including 16 other burglaries in San Clemente, 11 in Irvine and more in unincorporated south county areas.

For weeks, police and residents in San Clemente have been looking for a man, usually dressed in a suit and tie, who would knock on doors, claiming to occupants that he was a vacuum cleaner salesman, Ehlow said. If no one was home, “he would kick in the door and ransack the house,” taking jewelry, camera equipment, television sets and video recorders, Ehlow said.

No one actually saw the man as he smashed down front doors, Ehlow said, but often a brown BMW was seen in the neighborhood at the time of the burglaries.

‘Two Towels at Our Burglaries’

After the burglaries, the man “would take a piece of cloth from the house, usually a dish towel or a bath towel or a shirt--we think to wipe off his (finger) prints. He would throw that in the front yard,” Ehlow said. “We had two towels at our burglaries yesterday (Tuesday).”

Armed with a search warrant, San Clemente police spent Tuesday night going through Lizarraga’s apartment at 148 Pritchard St. in Fullerton. There they found jewelry, electronic equipment and cameras that they think may have been stolen, Ehlow said.

Police also arrested Lizarraga’s common-law wife, Amanda C. Lopez, 24, who is eight months pregnant, on suspicion of possession of stolen property. She was booked into Orange County Jail on $10,000 bail. Both she and Lizarraga are to be arraigned in South Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel this morning, Ehlow said.

At San Clemente Hospital, where he was treated for minor scrapes received during his arrest, Lizarraga said he “was a hype (heroin addict), shooting up four times a day,” according to Ehlow.