Police Still at Square One in Solving Main Street Burglaries : * Crime: When officers caught two suspects in the act, they thought they had their men. But a break-in while the pair was in jail proved them wrong. : SANTA MONICA

When they saw two men break the plate-glass front window of a posh Main Street clothing store Monday morning and begin looting it, the undercover Santa Monica police officers were fairly sure they had their suspects.

Since mid-October, at least three clothing stores along the trendy thoroughfare have been burglarized--one of them as many as three times--mostly by bandits breaking the storefront windows in the wee hours of the morning. Other stores have been hit as well.

But by early Tuesday, when the two suspects were in custody, a break-in occurred at another fancy clothing store on Main Street, and the bandits virtually cleaned it out.

It happened just a few blocks away from the break-in the night before, at a store that already had been burglarized. And the same procedure was used.

“We thought we had ‘em,” sighed Sgt. Dick Tapia, a supervisor of detectives with the Santa Monica Police Department. “These two apparently are responsible for several burglaries. But we know they are not responsible for all of them.”

So all this week, police have continued their surveillance, hoping to put an end to the burglaries that have terrified the proprietors of many Main Street shops.

But police don’t know how many suspects they are looking for because the alleged burglars in custody aren’t talking.

“There may be a group of people going around using the same method, who may be in cahoots with each other,” Sgt. Bill Brucker said. “It doesn’t take a genius to find a brick and throw it through a window, especially if they find other people are doing it.”

Shop owners, meanwhile, are taking precautions. Several are spending thousands of dollars to install accordion-style metal fences and other security measures.

An employee at Banana Republic, 2905 Main St., said the safari-wear shop has been burglarized three times in recent weeks. Police said they know of only two burglaries there, and store managers said they could not discuss security measures or crime details.

Framm Limited, 2667 Main St., has been hit twice, including the unsuccessful burglary attempt Monday morning that resulted in the two arrests.

In that case, police gave this account: Undercover officers observed two suspects “out casing the neighborhood” about 3:35 a.m. The suspects smashed the front window of the store and began to make off with about $3,400 in dresses. When they returned to their car, which police said was stolen, their escape was blocked by patrol units, and they were apprehended after trying to flee on foot.

Larry Chavez, 38, and Juan Jose Lopez, 21, were booked on suspicion of burglary and grand theft auto charges, Tapia said. Both were arraigned and are being held at the Los Angeles County Jail pending a preliminary hearing. Lopez failed to post bail, and Chavez, who was wanted on an outstanding burglary warrant in Los Angeles, was being held without bail. Police said they did not know whether the two men entered pleas.

“I’m glad that they captured them,” the owner of the shop, a woman who calls herself Framm, said of the two suspects. But she said that she is still shaken by the first burglary, which police say resulted in losses of more than $32,000, and that she has ordered special mirrors and laminated, impact-proof glass.

“It will protect us more,” she said. “Whatever it costs, I think it is well worth it.

“Everybody is very concerned,” Framm continued. “They are thinking about putting up gates, and watching very carefully what is going on on the street.”

Perhaps the hardest hit has been Buffalo, a shop that opened recently at 2449 Main St. It was first burglarized Oct. 16 about 3 a.m., and as much as $65,000 in women’s clothing from Italy, Paris and Japan was stolen, even though the shop had an alarm system, owner Gary Cohen said. It was hit again Tuesday morning, and police estimate losses at about $25,000.

“They really did us in this time. In five or 10 minutes, they emptied us out,” Cohen said. “They’ve gotten over half the store each time they come in.”

Cohen said police have stopped at least four burglaries in progress within the past two weeks, an assertion police said they could not confirm. Cohen said he is spending “thousands” to put up iron security gates.

There were no witnesses or suspects, but Tapia said police may have some clues. “We got prints from this one,” he said, “so maybe we’ll be able to do something.”

Concerned that the burglars are smart enough to elude their surveillance team, police are switching undercover officers and taking other measures.

“The crooks--some of them are sophisticated,” Tapia said. “They sit around jail and talk about how they got caught. They get pretty smart that way.”