Jewelry Found in ‘Repair’ Truck : Suspicious Neighbor Triggers Arrest

A man suspected of being a jewelry thief, whose masquerade as a cable TV repairman included using a truck with a boom and basket, was arrested in Newport Beach after a watchful resident saw the truck in her neighborhood and called police.

Danny Principato, 37, of Los Angeles was arrested in the fashionable Dover Shores area about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Robert Oakley, a Newport Beach police spokesman.

Principato, who was wearing a repairman’s uniform, was driving a green-and-white utility truck with a white boom that matched a description that police had given to Neighborhood Watch programs several weeks ago, Oakley said.

Principato’s mode of operation, “including the green-and-white utility truck, fits exactly with the other two burglaries reported in Newport Beach,” Oakley said.

In addition, gold rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and diamond watches were found in a search of the truck, Oakley said. Both the truck and the jewelry were confiscated by police.

Principato--who is about 5 feet, 9 inches, weighs 160 pounds and has black hair--was arrested on suspicion of burglary and also on an outstanding warrant involving a Los Angeles County burglary. He was taken to Newport Beach Jail.

Oakley said a burglar, dressed in a repairman’s uniform, has been knocking on the front doors of fashionable Newport homes. When a maid or the owner answered, he would try to persuade them to let him in.

“He would tell the maid or whoever was home that he was from the electric company or a cable TV company,” Oakley said. “Once inside the house, he would go through and steal jewelry from the victim’s bedrooms.”

Oakley, who is in charge of the department’s community relations program, said he began warning Neighborhood Watch chapters after several burglaries were reported in that style.

“We’ve been talking in these different neighborhoods about a burglary that occurred in Dover Shores and another at Harbor Island, and sure enough one of the neighborhood people saw this guy driving around and called us,” Oakley said.

Police declined to list the jewelry seized or to estimate its value. However, Oakley said an inventory of the items found in the truck took three pages of an officer’s report.

“We don’t want to be specific, but if anyone believes they’re missing jewelry, they can contact us and describe it,” he said, at (714) 644-3717.