California IN BRIEF : SALINAS : Kid Burglary Ring Broken Up

A gang of tiny toughs, ages 9 to 14, used a cutting torch to crack safes in seven businesses and may have committed up to 50 burglaries during a downtown crime spree, police said Friday. Thousands of dollars in cash and goods were taken during the series of break-ins over an eight-month period and the little burglars often vandalized the stores they broke into, investigators said. The case was broken late Thursday when two boys, one 11 and the other 12, were arrested after they allegedly robbed an elderly person in front of a fast-food restaurant, police Lt. Rick Anderson said. Police said they questioned the two youngsters, who confessed to the burglaries and named four accomplices. Anderson said police had a half-dozen boys--one age 9, one 11, one 12, two 13 and one 14--in custody and were sifting through a mound of burglary reports.