Liquor Store Thieves Focus on Cigarettes

Thieves who slip in through the rooftops of liquor stores to help themselves to cartons of cigarettes have been victimizing shopkeepers from Moorpark to as far away as Glendale, authorities say.

In at least one of the thefts, sheriff’s investigators have narrowed their focus to four men who were captured on videotape as they cased Moorpark Liquors in the 300 block of West Los Angeles Ave., said Sgt. Terry Hughes of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

On the morning of Aug. 20, employees of the store discovered that an estimated $7,800 worth of cigarettes was missing, along with cash and some X-rated videos, Hughes said.

The suspects could be heard on the video “making reference to cigarettes. . . . If you saw the tape, I think you’d see it’s pretty obvious they were casing the place,” he added.

In another incident, thieves took an estimated $21,000 worth of cigarettes Aug. 9 from The Spirit Shoppe in the 300 block of Hampshire Road in Thousand Oaks, Hughes said.

Another $22,000 worth of cigarettes was stolen from the Liquor Chest in Agoura Hills the same night.

Similar burglaries have been reported at liquor stores in Encino, Granada Hills and Glendale, all of them since the beginning of August.

“All indications are that there are a multitude of victims in the greater Los Angeles area,” Hughes said.

He added that he has been in contact with police and sheriff’s deputies in both Los Angeles and Ventura counties to share information on the robberies.