Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station detectives are looking to speak with a couple of people who might be looking for their phones right now, according to court records obtained by The Signal.
Station officials are hopeful that a pair of cellphones left behind last month — one at a vehicle break-in and another at a home burglary about two weeks later — will provide at least some answers for their investigations.
The first phone was found after a break-in at the 26900 block of Whitehorse Place in Canyon Country, according to a homeowner who told the station he left an empty home at 6 p.m., returned at 10:30 p.m. to his home and found someone already there.
“He ran upstairs to their master bedroom and saw the rear glass sliding door was shattered and his bedroom was ransacked,” according to the report from Detective Steve Erickson, who investigated the report. “As he was in the bedroom, he heard noises in the backyard. As he looked outside, he observed an unidentified person (suspect) running through the neighboring yard hillside and into a white-colored vehicle, which sped off out of view.”
The victim reported to the station that, after the break-in, he canvassed the area around his home and found a red cellphone and a work glove that didn’t belong to the homeowner or his neighbors.
“The work glove appeared to match a glove that was observed on camera footage at a nearby residential burglary that occurred approximately 950 feet to the north of his residence the same night,” per the detective’s report. “It is believed the cellphone belonged to the suspects and was left at the scene as he fled.”
The search warrant request notes that since smartphones “have been almost universally adopted by the American public,” he believes the recovered item will provide information about the suspect’s whereabouts.
Similarly, across town in Castaic a couple weeks later, a homeowner noticed his 2015 Dodge Challenger was broken into while parked in his driveway.
The homeowner was able to pinpoint the time of the incident, 2:49 a.m. March 16, thanks to his Ring camera footage that also showed the suspect kneeling by his car door.
The suspect damaged a window and, according to the deputy’s report, also damaged the gear shift in an attempt to steal the vehicle.
The thief was unsuccessful, but an investigating officer suspects the red iPhone that was left on the driver’s seat after the incident might provide some clues for the investigation.
Station officials indicated Thursday there was no updated information immediately available regarding the status of their investigations.
