|
|
|
|
Sheriff's Dept. nabs burglary suspect |
|
|
Friday, 20 July 2007 |
By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
With a suspect in custody, local authorities are hoping that a series of burglaries in Lone Pine has come to an end.
For exactly one month, Inyo County Sheriff’s investigators have been looking into a number of home robberies in which televisions, DVDs, video tapes, VCRs and DVD players, computers and MP3 players were stolen from local residents.
After one resident was offered a deal on some electronics that seemed too good to be true, he followed his gut instinct and took his recently purchased items to the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department
to be sure that none of the goods were “hot.”
They were.
According to Inyo County Sheriff’s Investigator Andrew Marsh, the resident “presented himself to me with some property he came in contact with.” Marsh. in turn, was able to link the items with at least one of the reported burglaries in Lone Pine.
Going off information obtained from the informant, investigators felt they had reason to suspect Aaron Scott Zucco, a 33-year-old Lone Pine resident who was on felony probation for theft, Marsh said.
Investigators initiated a probation search of Zucco’s property on Monday, July 16 at approximately 2:30 p.m.
“Sheriff’s personnel recovered two confirmed stolen items from within the residence,” a press release states. Zucco was subsequently arrested for three counts of alleged residential burglary, possession of stolen property and violation of probation. He is currently being held in Inyo County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
“This investigation is still ongoing, and we have one person in custody,” said Marsh.
According to Marsh, approximately $400 worth of alleged stolen property was found in Zucco’s possession when deputies and investigators searched his residence. A total of about $2,000 was stolen in the five reported burglaries, he said.
On June 16, the Sheriff’s Department launched an investigation into an alleged robbery in Lone Pine, in which the resident had been on vacation, and upon her return, found items missing from her home. Over the next month three more Lone Pine residents would come forward claiming to have items stolen from their homes while they were out of town. One vehicle was also reported to be burglarized.
“At this time we have four residents and an auto burglary,” Marsh said, “but there could be people who are still out of the area, and that’s what (it appears) the burglar was marking.”
Through interviews with the suspect in custody, Marsh believes the alleged burglar watched residents “within several blocks” of his own home, for people who were on vacation.
None of the four residences that were burglarized in the last month in Lone Pine were forcibly entered, Marsh said.
“It’s important to remind people about securing their homes, the burglar was able to find unlocked doors, open and unlocked windows,” which made for easy entry into the residents’ homes. “We’re at a time of year when we’re all running our swamp coolers, so what do we do, crack our windows to draw it out,” but it is important to remember to secure possible entry and exit points in a home “especially if you’re leaving for any period of time,” Marsh said. “None of us want to be victims of crimes.”
If it weren’t for one resident taking extra precautions regarding his personal items, Marsh said, the Sheriff’s Department may not have a suspect in custody.
“Most people don’t take the time to jot down serial numbers” for things like televisions and VCRs, Marsh said. “This is vital information that we need – file that information in a place where it can be retrieved later.” Law enforcement agencies can enter it into a data base, and if the items are ever recovered, they can be linked to their rightful owners, and possibly even the burglar, Marsh said. “One of the victims had that information,” he noted. |
|
Last Updated ( Monday, 10 September 2007 )
|
 |
|
| I`ve been vacationing in the bishop area all my life. as a child
my father would take us up to tom`s place every summer to fish.now that my father
has passed, my visits there remind me of him. i`ve been visiting since 1965! William Jones - San Diego, CA | |
|
|  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
