Valleywide : Torch User Sought in 9 School Burglaries

Authorities are looking for a burglar who hit nine San Fernando Valley schools over the past two weeks, breaking into locked buildings at night with a blowtorch that he uses to melt the locks on vending machines.

Los Angeles Unified School District police say the man has robbed machines at eight elementary schools and one high school. “We’re just afraid he’s going to set someplace on fire,” said Sgt. Steve Masters.

In fact, investigators say that at several locations a school fire extinguisher was found discharged, indicating that the burglar used it to put out a fire he started.

The scenes at the two most recent burglary sites--Coldwater Canyon Elementary School in North Hollywood and Canterbury Elementary School in Pacoima--were familiar to school police Detective Joe Preciano: holes melted in exterior doors and barred windows, and soda machines in the teachers’ lounges with the locks burned away.

Preciano said the thief usually strikes over the weekend but has occasionally operated on school nights. “This guy, he’s not a transient, because he seems to have some sort of mobility,” Preciano said. “He hits two or three schools a night.”

The thief has also taken microwave ovens from some schools, police said. All told, Preciano said, he’s cost the district $1,000 to $1,500 in damages and lost property, not counting the money lost from the soda machines that belong to outside vendors.

“He causes more damage than [the money] he gets,” Masters said.