Suspect Is Sought in 100 Burglaries : Crime: A state prison escapee is wanted in a series of daytime break-ins in northern San Diego County. Authorities fear he may be in Mexico.

A man who escaped from state prison seven years ago is the prime suspect in more than 100 daylight residential burglaries in northern San Diego County last year, but police now worry that the thief may have once again eluded authorities by disappearing into Mexico.

Sergio Gomez, 28, has escaped capture by San Diego police and sheriff’s deputies while allegedly break ing into homes and taking tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, coins and silver. He has been dubbed the “Bernardo Bandit” because most of the burglaries have occurred in the Rancho Bernardo and Rancho Penasquitos neighborhoods of San Diego.

The crimes have taken place between 7 a.m. and noon, with the thief prying open a rear door or window and taking only small items that are easily concealable.

“The nature and the quantities of the crimes are such that (the burglar) is a major player up here for us,” said Lt. Mike Gillespie of the San Diego Police Department’s Northeast division.

Gomez, who uses the alias Sergio Sanchez, was serving a three-year sentence on a San Diego burglary conviction when, officials said, he vanished in December, 1982, from the Sierra Conservation Center, a medium-security state prison in Jamestown, Calif.

Lt. Ken Casler, a prison spokesman, said Gomez walked away from a work project at a nearby fairgrounds and “we haven’t seen or heard from him since.”

Last January, the series of residential burglaries began, with 98 occuring in the northern reaches of San Diego city limit and about half a dozen more in the San Marcos and rural Escondido areas.

In more than a dozen of the cases, police said, Gomez’s fingerprints were found at the scenes of the crimes.

A large amount of the loot--including antique rings, statues and silver that authorities believe was stolen in the burglaries--has turned up at local pawnshops.

Gomez is named in half a dozen arrest warrants, including one issued by the FBI for stealing money from a bank.

The burglaries abruptly stopped in early November. Police now wonder whether Gomez, who is described as having close relatives and friends in both northern San Diego County and in Mexico, may have slipped across the border.

“We’ve checked every place we know,” said Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Mike Wittmer. “We checked prior addresses and stuff like that and put the information out to our patrol units. But even then, nothing.”

In another attempt to locate Gomez, San Diego police Officer Kelly Shay has put together a Crime Stoppers film re-enactment to be aired as a public service announcement over the next two weeks on local television stations, and a reward of up to $1,000 has been posted for information leading to his arrest.

“We’d be more than happy to pay the whole amount in this case,” she said.

Gomez is described as a Latino male, 6 feet tall, weighing 170 pounds, with brown eyes, long brown hair and a beard.