8 Arrested on Stolen Property Charges
Eight people have been arrested at a South Los Angeles warehouse where, authorities said, more than $500,000 in stolen merchandise was found.
FBI agents and Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators took two women and six men into custody Thursday for investigation of felony charges of receiving stolen property.
The merchandise came from at least five cargo containers reportedly stolen from cargo terminals or private company loading docks throughout the county, sheriff’s spokesman Richard Dinsmoor said.
A South Gate businessman had told authorities that he was approached by a “broker” who offered to sell personal computer units valued at $500 for only $100, officials said. Undercover investigators then contacted the broker and requested to buy computers. After the suspect ordered a truck to pick up about 150 units, investigators followed the truck to the warehouse where the arrests were made.
Cargo-container thefts have been increasing in the county, sheriffs investigators said. During the last two months of 1988, more than $2 million in cargo merchandise was reported stolen in the city of Carson alone, officials said.
Other suspects were being sought, investigators said.
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