2 Men Arraigned in 48 Burglaries of Schools

Two men allegedly responsible for stealing equipment worth $100,000 in 48 burglaries at schools in the Sylmar and Tujunga areas were arraigned Friday in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

A third man, whom police arrested outside an elementary school last Tuesday on suspicion of burglary, was released for lack of evidence. A 16-year-old boy arrested in connection with the burglaries has yet to be arraigned and was being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.

One other suspect is still at large, police said.

Darren Wade Arment, 26, of Sylmar, was charged with two counts of burglary, with bail set at $30,000. Ruben Contreras, 31, of San Fernando, was charged with three counts of burglary with bail of $70,000. Both men were being held at the Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles and if convicted face minimum sentences of three years in state prison, according to district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

They were taken into custody Tuesday, a week after two 18-year-olds were arrested in connection with a wave of burglaries and vandalism at 20 schools in the northwest San Fernando Valley.

Tuesday’s arrests were the work of a joint task force formed by the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department--the first of its kind in the Valley, according to Capt. Stan Ludwig, detective commander of the LAPD’s Foothill Police Station.

A month ago, Ludwig and officers of the school police formed the Joint Burglary Suppression Task Force, and the two agencies teamed up for nightly patrols of northeast Valley schools.

Using the computerized Fast Track Program to identify clusters of similar crimes, LAPD analysts discovered a number of school break-ins in the area, Ludwig said. The burglars stole computers, VCRs and televisions from schools in the predawn hours, police said. Of the 18 burglarized schools, 15 were elementary schools, including Sunland, Apperson Street and Osceola Street, which was hit five times.

LAPD Det. Chuck Barnes said the burglars became bolder as time passed. “After a school replaced the equipment they stole, they sometimes went back and took that too,” Barnes said.

On Tuesday, officers noticed a man in dark-colored clothing standing outside Osceola Street Elementary School, Barnes said. When the officers approached the man, he ran to his car and led police on a brief chase into a residential neighborhood, where they found him hiding under a parked car.

Inside the man’s abandoned car, officers found a driver’s license and computer components, which they later determined had been stolen in two earlier burglaries, Barnes said. Gene Steve Wilson, 36, of Sylmar, was arrested in the incident but was set free Friday for lack of evidence.

However, the items in Wilson’s car led investigators to a Sylmar house where they found Contreras and the 16-year-old. Ten hours later police arrested Arment at a nearby Motel 8.

Barnes said the burglars broke into the schools because they needed money for drugs. Several of the computers have been recovered from homes in Sylmar and Canyon Country.

“Those individuals bought them without knowing where they came from,” Barnes said.

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Schools are often targeted by burglars because they are located in quiet residential neighborhoods and surrounded by playgrounds and athletic fields, enabling thieves to get into the buildings undetected. And over the past decade they have been stocked with computers, televisions and other expensive electronic components.

Between July 1 and Dec. 31 the LAUSD reported 758 burglaries, a dramatic decrease from the 964 burglaries during the same period in 1996. Still, the burglaries cost the district nearly $600,000 in stolen equipment, said Richard Page, assistant LAUSD police chief.

Making matters worse, the district does not insure the items stolen from its schools, said LAUSD Board Member David Tokofsky, who represents the northeast Valley. “A cost-benefit analysis determined that it would be cheaper to pay for [stolen items] out of pocket” instead of buying insurance, said Tokofsky, suggesting that the decision may need to be reconsidered.

Another problem is that the 300-member LAUSD police force is responsible for more than 900 facilities over some 750 square miles. During weekends and nights, officials said, only a handful of police officers is available to patrol hundreds of Valley schools.

Although there are plans to spend Proposition BB funds to equip schools with alarm systems and grates on windows, there are no plans to hire more school police.