Snow Helps Deputies Track Loot

Last week’s blanket of white may have hindered Southern California motorists but it was a big help to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in the Antelope Valley, who followed tracks in the snow to members of an alleged burglary ring.

Deputies Don Self and Fred McNutt, who were responding Friday to a report of a burglary near 12th Street East and Avenue Q in Lancaster, discovered footprints leading away from the area.

If that wasn’t enough to make them curious, the square imprint of a television set that appeared every so often certainly did.

Self and McNutt followed the tracks for several blocks to an apartment building in the 32000 block of 12th Street, Sgt. Ernie Roop said. They obtained search warrants for several of the building’s apartments and discovered a cache of stolen goods that included car stereos, guns and several television sets. The investigators also seized a small amount of rock cocaine.

Five people who lived in several of the apartments were booked on suspicion of narcotics possession, receiving stolen property and burglary, Roop said. The names of the suspects were not released.

Roop said the items are believed to have been taken in at least 20 burglaries in the Lancaster area.