Man in Guard Uniform a Suspect in Tustin Burglary

A man wearing a security guard uniform was arrested on suspicion of burglarizing an antique store and police believe he might have been involved in other recent burglaries in Orange and Riverside counties, officials said Saturday.

Police said Victor G. Torres, 23, of Corona was arrested in Anaheim late Friday, about 20 hours after officers stopped him for cruising near the Antiques Plus Store, in the 15700 block of Tustin Village Way. The store has been burglarized five times in recent months and was under surveillance, police said.

Lt. Mike Shanahan said officers first detained Torres about 2 a.m. Friday because he was cruising in an area where several burglaries had occurred. Torres was stopped outside the antique store but released when he told them he was a security guard and was looking for a friend who worked for another security company.

Police later discovered that the antique store had been burglarized during the night and began looking for Torres at the work and home addresses he gave them when he was stopped.

After Torres was arrested about 10 p.m. Friday, police searched his home in Corona and found items that had been reported stolen in several recent burglaries, Shanahan said. Investigators found fax machines, telephones and vacuum cleaners in the home, as well as police uniforms that had been taken from a dry-cleaning facility in Corona.

Shanahan said investigators were still trying to determine whether Torres was an employee of the guard company whose uniform he was wearing, or was impersonating a guard.