Stolen Purse Leads Police to Cache

A purse stolen in Ventura on Thursday morning led authorities to not only the capture of the thieves but to a cache of stolen goods, police said.

Two Ventura men are in custody after their arrest on suspicion of theft after police seized a variety of items in a raid on a Denver Street house in east Ventura. The items range from car stereo systems to checks stolen from the mail boxes of rural homes.

“They’ve been real busy--a little crime wave,” Sgt. Larry White of the Ventura Police Department said.

The incident began about 6:30 a.m. when a 41-year-old Ventura woman parked in the driveway of a day-care center in the 4800 block of Lafayette Drive to drop off her child, White said. Returning to her car less than a minute later, the woman discovered her purse had been stolen and then spotted an orange sport utility vehicle speeding away.

The woman flagged down Officer Jim Turner, who pursued the vehicle.

The driver pulled over a couple of blocks away. Police said they found the purse and learned that the Jeep Cherokee had been stolen from Camarillo, repainted and had stolen license plates attached.

A subsequent search of a residence where one of two men had been staying turned up numerous stolen items, including cellular phones and mail, White said.

The mail, which included checkbooks, checks and credit card applications, had been stolen from residences in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo and Santa Paula, police said.

“The value of that [mail] is probably heading off a lot of fraud and forgeries that would have occurred,” White said, adding that police got lucky. “Minor things turn into major things sometimes.”

Raymond Flinchum, 24, and Jed Temple, 21, both of Ventura, were booked into Ventura County Jail on suspicion of grand theft auto, possession of stolen property and theft, White said.