Los Angeles Police Department officers arrested a young man and a teenaged boy in Eagle Rock Wednesday morning while they were allegedly checking parked vehicles with unlocked doors on a street north of Colorado Boulevard.
The duo, aged 18 years and 16 years, confessed to stealing property from eight vehicles on streets north of Colorado over the past few weeks, including goods stolen from two cars Wednesday, LAPD Senior Lead Officer Nina Preciado told Eagle Rock Patch.
"They told detectives they were checking car doors and if a door was locked they would move on to the next car," Preciado said.
The stolen property comprised such items as cell phones, GPS systems, phone chargers and sunglasses, Preciado said, adding that some of the goods were returned to their owners Wednesday.
The arrests, on Hartwick Street, near the Los Flores Drive crossing, followed a 911 call by a resident who provided a detailed description of the alleged burglars, Preciado said, adding that there has been a spike in vehicle burglaries north of Colorado in the area near La Roda Avenue and Dahlia Drive.
"We really appreciate the citizen who called 911 with the information," Preciado said. "He didn't approach the suspects—instead he gave a detailed description of what they looked like, their clothing and direction of travel."
Officers responded swiftly to the 911 call. Even though they were not assigned to patrol Eagle Rock, they were familiar with the streets where they made the arrests because they had been briefed intensively by Preciado in connection with a May 1 task force operation in which volunteers drove around the area and called police if they saw any suspicious activity, the senior lead officer for Eagle Rock explained.
A similar task force operation is scheduled to take place in another—undisclosed—area of Eagle Rock Thursday, Preciado said.
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