Snores Betray Catnapping Cat Burglar

Rest easy, the Goldilocks Bandit is behind bars.

The most lethargic burglar in Huntington Beach foiled himself Sunday night when he tried, mid-burglary, to steal a nap.

Police say Juan Tamalatxe, 38, of Huntington Beach broke into one of the Mora Kai apartments at 18881 Mora Kai Lane sometime Sunday afternoon.

While inside the apartment, Tamalatxe apparently heard someone coming and scurried under the bed, police say.

The tenants, a woman and her son, saw nothing out of order when they returned, so they sat down to watch some television. But after two hours, the woman heard a noise coming from the bedroom.

“She went into the bedroom and heard a man snoring,” said Lt. Dan Johnson of the Huntington Beach Police Department. “But there was nobody in the bedroom that she could see.”

Frightened, mother and son ran from the apartment and phoned police.

“We arrived a few minutes later,” Johnson said, “and found [Tamalatxe] sound asleep under the bed. In his pocket he had a barrette, a hairpiece, that belonged to [the woman]. From her bathroom. Worth all of a dollar.

“There was a footprint outside the window of the bedroom and the imprint matched Juan’s foot, so he got in through the window. Juan, as you might expect, had been drinking.”

Police arrested Tamalatxe, after waking him, and booked him on suspicion of burglary. He was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Johnson said the tenants and Tamalatxe didn’t know each other, and it was unclear why Tamalatxe picked their apartment.

They’ve “never seen him before,” Johnson said. “Apparently, he was in the house when they came back and got scared. He hid under the bed and fell asleep.”

Wayne Korn, husband of the on-site apartment complex manager, said Tamalatxe claimed he had an arrangement with a former tenant.

“He claims his friend used to live there, and his friend said he could crash at the apartment,” Korn said.