2 House Burglars Caught on Videotape

Two burglars who target homes for sale in the San Fernando Valley were caught on videotape during a recent job, police said Friday.

The burglars were taped Tuesday morning by a surveillance camera inside a Woodland Hills house they were looting, said Det. Andrew Purdy of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley station.

He declined to release the exact location of that home or others the burglars may have broken into.

Other cases that may be the work of the two are in West Valley communities, Purdy said.

He said he was checking with detectives at other LAPD stations in the Valley to determine if there have been similar burglaries elsewhere.

“They looked right at the camera,” Purdy said of the Woodland Hills case. “The female suspect is heard on the audio portion of the tape calling her accomplice.”.

The man--whom the woman refers to as “Scott” in the video--is white, between 25 and 30 years old, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs about 170 pounds and has brown hair in a long ponytail, authorities said.

The woman is also white, between 20 and 25 years old, 5 feet, 3 inches tall, weighs 130 to 140 pounds and has brown hair, Purdy said.

The burglarized houses--listed for sale--were still occupied and the burglars probably knew that the alarms would be disconnected, Purdy said.

Owners of homes for sale often disconnect their alarms to make the houses accessible for viewing by potential buyers, Purdy said. Citizens ordinarily pay for each false alarm that causes a police response.

The burglars hit the homes when the owners were at work and took items such as electronic equipment and jewelry, he said.