A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes Bureau official said Wednesday there is little information that can yet be released on the April 10 burglaries in which 10 businesses fell victim to smash-and-grabs — however, he said, the earlier Feb. 17 string of smash-and-grabs investigation is moving in a good direction.
Lt. Derek White, spokesman for LASD Major Crimes Bureau, said that detectives with the Organized Retail Crime Task Force have been actively investigating the incidents with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.
“We are working closely with Santa Clarita on a lot of these cases,” said White.
He said that the string of burglaries done in a smash-and-grab style in February had active leads and they were waiting for some information to get back to the task force and once it is verified it will possibly lead them to some suspects.
Initially on Feb. 17, Watch Deputy Nicholas Hoslet, spokesman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station, said the station could not confirm whether the burglaries were connected to each other and no arrests had been made.
White said that the task force believes the same crew hit the 11 restaurants.
However, he added that the February crew is not suspected of being the crew that did the April 10 burglaries, despite the smash and grabs being done in a similar style.
“In regard to the ones that just happened in the Bouquet Plaza, we don’t believe they are the same suspects. We don’t believe they are related but they did have a similar MO (style), which was concerning to us, but as of now we do not believe they are the same suspects,” said White.
He added that it was reported several suspects were wearing gloves and masks and shattered the front door and stole property at each location and then left in a stolen Hyundai and dumped the car later.
“As of now we don’t have anything workable, but we are still actively working the case,” said White.
