Police arrest 2 groups
NORTH GLENDALE — Police are investigating whether four Tujunga residents and four Temple City residents arrested this week are responsible for a string of burglaries in the city’s northern neighborhoods.
On Sunday, Glendale police arrested Tujunga residents David Silva, 19, Christopher Abegglen, 25, and a 15-year-old Tujunga resident after a neighbor on the 3800 block of Los Olivos Lane called in suspicious people lurking by a neighbor’s home that had been reported burglarized the day before, said Sgt. Tom Lorenz.
Police arrested the men, who matched the neighbor’s description after finding a stolen camera near them on the sidewalk.
Police on Tuesday also arrested Tujunga resident Joshua Buss, 19, after obtaining a search warrant to search the 15-year-old’s home.
They found Buss amid property that was allegedly stolen, including jewelry and credit cards that were believed to be stolen as long as a year ago.
“It’s obvious that these individuals have been committing burglaries for a period of time,” Lorenz said.
Los Angeles police on Tuesday arrested Michael Montelongo, 29, Adam Ortiz, 22, Cesar Garcia, 20, and Tatiana Thibes, 20 — all alleged members of an established Temple City gang — after a resident reported a suspicious Chrysler Pacifica in Tujunga a few blocks from Glendale.
After watching the alleged burglars lift a flat-screen television out of a house there, police attempted to arrest the men and ended up chasing them to Foothill Boulevard, where the suspects crashed their vehicle.
Los Angeles police contacted their Glendale counterparts because the silver Chrysler matched the description of a vehicle spotted near recent residential burglaries.
Police have noticed a string of burglaries in the city’s northernmost region in the past month.
“The unfortunate thing is the Foothill communities are along the 210 Freeway and Foothill Boulevard, both providing easy escape,” Lorenz said.
In early May, police arrested three women who matched the description of the so-called “knock-knock” burglars in connection with some burglaries in the area, but more than a dozen residential burglaries have occurred in the area since their arrest, according to city crime records.
So far police have connected the Temple City arrests to at least three of the burglaries, but on Thursday Lorenz said it was still too early to confirm whether the two groups arrested this week were responsible for all of the recent incidents.
Still, both groups match the common methods of the incidents, he said.
Most thieves entered the homes during the day through windows and sliding glass doors when no one was inside.
They typically stole jewelry, computers, iPods, cameras and cash.
“We believe they are possibly responsible for other burglaries in our communities as well as other communities in the foothills,” he said.
Police are asking anyone who has noticed any of the alleged burglars or the silver Chrysler in their neighborhood to contact the Glendale Police Department’s Burglary Unit at (818) 548-3127, or Glendale Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.