Jersey betrays suspect

A suspect was arrested Jan. 3 for stealing two drills from a garage after being spotted in the area wearing the same football jersey seen in a surveillance video taken during the crime, nearly a month earlier.

Video surveillance showed Edward DeArce, 37 of La Crescenta, walking into a residential garage in the 2300 block of Barton Lane, placing the two drills into his backpack and walking away in less than 20 seconds Dec. 13.

On Jan. 3, Dep. Carlos Vega of the CV Sheriff’s Station spotted DeArce by Foothill Boulevard and Rosemont Avenue at 9:20 a.m., wearing the same jersey he had worn the day of the crime.

“We showed him the video and he confessed,” said Sgt. Ray Harley of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station. “He claimed to [have been] drunk.”

DeArce was a parolee and is being held at the Inmate Reception Center in Los Angeles without bail.