Local detectives credited a neighborhood watch “on high alert” in Westridge with helping them seize and search a BMW left not far from where “numerous high-value residential burglaries” have happened recently.
In a request to search the vehicle, Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station detectives said the white 2018 X3 SUV was spotted and then abandoned Feb. 22, near where three burglaries were reported earlier in the month.
Deputies were contacted around 7:30 p.m. after three men wearing masks and gloves were seen walking on the fire road around the area of Oak Terrace Place in Stevenson Ranch.
The informant, who leads the local neighborhood watch, told deputies the SUV was being driven recklessly at speeds in excess of 70 mph, according to Detective Alejandro Bocanegro, who investigated the report.
The resident was able to get in front of the suspect’s SUV and force it to stop, which resulted in the driver running from the vehicle with the engine running, Bocanegro wrote.
Deputies responded to a call for service, according to the investigator’s report, but the three men seen earlier were no longer around.
“Due to the vehicle being abandoned, deputies impounded and held the vehicle for evidence,” according to an inventory for the search warrant. “Deputies also conducted an administrative inventory search of the vehicle and located three temporary license plates, which did not return with the DMV information for the vehicle. Deputies also recovered two cell phones, a crowbar, a Sawzall, gloves, backpacks and clothing from inside the vehicle.”
The circumstances surrounding the discovery — attempts to conceal identities, fleeing the area, abandoning a working vehicle with false temporary license plates and the theft tools found — led deputies to believe a search of the phones and vehicle computer recovered will lead to further evidence.
“I formed the opinion the suspects were casing the area to identify homes to burglarize at the present time or to identify future target locations,” Bocanegro wrote.
On Thursday, station officials did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Residents of the Stevenson Ranch-adjacent community with multimillion-dollar homes have been upset by breakins in the area that have been happening for months.
In November, a resident who lived several hundred feet away from where the car was abandoned in February reported his attempt to track down men flying a drone that also appeared to be looking for targets, not long after his house was burglarized.
