The Region : ‘Bump-Rob’ Thief Guilty

A 30-year-old Wilshire District man pleaded guilty to 24 counts of robbery and grand theft in a series of “bump-and-rob” crimes against women driving expensive cars. The victims included actress Morgan Fairchild. Michael Lee Burton faces a maximum of 12 years in prison when he is sentenced May 5 in Van Nuys Superior Court. In the thefts, many of which occurred on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley, the assailant would deliberately drive into the rear of a luxury car occupied by a lone woman. When the woman halted to inspect the damage, he would get into her car, sometimes pushing the woman to the ground first, and drive away with the car and the woman’s purse. Burton, who admitted stealing 23 cars between Feb. 9 and March 9, was arrested in March after police sighted him driving a Mercedes-Benz that had been reported stolen the previous day from a Pacific Palisades woman.