Deputies Find Suspect Hiding in Mom’s Doghouse

Sheriff’s deputies found a Palmdale man wanted in a string of Antelope Valley liquor store robberies hiding out early Wednesday in a doghouse in the backyard of his mother’s home.

Kenneth Samuels, 19, was arrested and booked on suspicion of participating in six armed robberies of liquor stores over the summer, said Sheriff’s Deputy David Miklos of the Palmdale station. His mother, Lenia Samuels, was arrested as well for harboring a fugitive, he said.

Deputies, acting on an anonymous tip from someone who had seen the man’s picture on the Sheriff’s Department “Street Beat” cable TV show, arrived at the Samuelses’ home in the 3600 block of Milky Way Court around 1 a.m., Miklos said.

Samuels’ mother refused to cooperate with deputies and a SWAT team was called in to conduct a search. A sheriff’s canine unit eventually found Samuels in the doghouse, Miklos said.

Samuels’ alleged partner in all six liquor store robberies, Che Brazil, was arrested in September after being profiled on the same show, Miklos said. He was later sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Kenneth Samuels is being in lieu of $85,000 bail and his mother in lieu of $42,500.