Home Cache Sends Young Thieves on Spending Spree

It all started with the victim’s son, police said. The teenager told some friends that his father had thousands of dollars hidden in his bedroom.

Word of the treasure spread, and some who heard it, including students at North Hills Preparatory School in the San Fernando Valley, could not resist the temptation. Eventually, seven people would take part in two break-ins, police said, stealing Chaim Nathan’s life savings, about $250,000 in cash.

They spent the money on cars--one dropped $22,689 in cash for a black Infiniti, police said. They bought jewelry, clothing, a computer. They traveled to Las Vegas casinos.

One North Hills student even offered a teacher $1,500 for an A in algebra, police said.

It took the defendants months to blow all the money.

And it took months for police to find a suspect. By the time the thieves were caught, they had spent almost all the money. Less than $6,000 was left.

“They would go on spending sprees,” Los Angeles Police Det. Jose Suarez said. “Now they shed tears and say that they’re sorry.”

Two juveniles and two adults were arrested and charged with burglary. The juveniles admitted their crimes and received probation, authorities said. Three other juveniles are still being considered for prosecution, police said.

Jonathan Paul Lefler, 19, and Michael Phillip Capozzi, 21, took more than $200,000 in cash and $60,000 in jewelry--the lion’s share of Nathan’s savings.

Both pleaded guilty, and Capozzi was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison. Lefler, who drove the getaway car, will serve two years in a state Department of Corrections program that will let him work to raise money for repaying the victim.

“What you did was pretty outrageous,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff said at Lefler’s sentencing Wednesday.

Hoff ordered them to pay Nathan $268,000 in restitution and give him the Infiniti and $5,300 in cash that police seized from Lefler.

“I just want to recover [all] my money--which I never will,” said Nathan, 55, an immigrant from Israel who said he needed the cash for his wife, who has cancer. “They’ve gotten away with nothing. Next year they can do this again.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Walmark said Hoff imposed a sentence designed to help Nathan obtain repayment.

Suarez and his partner, Det. Martin Pinner, said the theft began with Nathan’s son, who they said had helped himself to a few hundred dollars from the pile of mostly $100 bills that his father kept in the base of his platform bed.

“He had been talking to his friends and saying his dad had all this money,” Suarez said. Soon the rumor spread to the older youths.

Sometime in February or March last year, a group of teenagers broke into Nathan’s house and stole about $40,000, according to police and court records.

That was only the beginning.

One of the teenagers allegedly talked about the theft at a rehearsal for a student play at the school that spring. Then, according to police, he plotted another burglary with Lefler and Capozzi. (That juvenile has yet to be charged in connection with this case.)

On May 24, 1998, Nathan left his North Hollywood house about 10 a.m. and returned about 5:30 p.m. to find his bathroom a mess and his mattress propped up on a dresser. His life’s savings and about $60,000 in jewelry had vanished.

Lefler, Capozzi and a female juvenile had taken all the money and jewelry hidden under the bed, police said. The two men split the money evenly at about $86,000 apiece in mostly $100 bills and gave the rest to a different juvenile who had told them about the cash, police said.

Capozzi bought the 1996 Infiniti the same day, police said. Although his mother asserted that she had purchased the car, detectives said they are convinced that it was bought with Nathan’s stolen money.

Lefler told authorities that he blew his share on clothes, music, video games and a $3,000 computer.

Others allegedly bought jewelry, clothing and gifts, and poured money into upgrading and primping their cars.

Then there were the lavish vacations. Lefler admitted to police that he spent about $20,000 during an eight-day trip to Las Vegas, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, records show. There were other trips to Vegas, where police said the thieves stayed at the New York New York casino.

There was a trip to Lake Mead, where the young men used their robbery proceeds to rent a boat for $60 an hour. There were even helicopter trips, according to the transcript of a preliminary hearing.

When one of the teenagers was involved in an accident in the Infiniti, police said, he paid the owner $5,000 in cash to “avoid questions.”

In June 1998, one of the juveniles allegedly offered a teacher first $500, then $1,500, for an A, police said.

Finally, in December, police received a tip.

“We got a call from one of the son’s friends who had information about who committed the crime,” Suarez said. Authorities eventually learned that there had been two break-ins, he said.

Six of the seven suspects admitted their roles in the crimes by the end of January.

“The crime itself--breaking and entering--happens every day,” said Walmark, the prosecutor. “What’s unusual is what they found there: a treasure trove. And then for them to be so cavalier and lavishly spend it.”

Pinner said it is actually quite common for people, particularly immigrants, to keep large sums of cash around the house. “We lived 20 years in this neighborhood and many times left the house open and nothing happened,” Nathan said, adding that he has learned a very hard lesson and will never keep valuables and cash at home again.

He said the money was in the house because his wife has cancer and he wanted to have the cash readily available if she needed it in a pinch.

Nathan said the sum represented 20 years of saving for retirement and the proceeds from his wife’s sale of her mother’s house after the elder woman’s death. Much of the jewelry had been passed on from prior generations. Also stolen was a diamond ring Nathan gave his wife for her 50th birthday, he said.

It was heartbreaking to learn that his son’s friends had taken advantage of the family. He would never have guessed it, he said.

“I’ve gone through hell,” Nathan said. “To have a sick person at home and then to have everything taken away. . . . Now I’ll have to start all over, I guess.”