Deputies nab trio with stolen goods
Oak Avenue call leads to chase into Pacifica
By Greg Thomas [ greg@hmbreview.com ]
Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008 - 01:56:26 pm PDT
Coastside authorities arrested three Oakland men on car burglary charges early Monday morning after pursuing them along Highway 1 through Devil’s Slide and Pacifica.
Half Moon Bay Police responded to an auto-burglary report on Oak Avenue at 3 a.m. on Monday and found that the victim’s speaker box and in-dash DVD player were stolen. The officers asked other agencies to be on the lookout for the suspect vehicle after a witness spotted the suspects fleeing the area.
Minutes later, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office located the vehicle traveling northbound on Highway 1 near the Half Moon Bay Airport and signaled for the driver to pull over. The vehicle continued along the highway, pursued by deputies, through Devil’s Slide and Pacifica into Colma before running over a spike strip, which caused it to stop.
Luis Gallegos, Michael Baldwin and Tony Alvarado, all Oakland residents in their late-teens, were arrested and later booked into the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City on charges of felony burglary, conspiracy, possession of stolen property and evading a police officer. Their bail has been set at $10,000 each. Approximately 65 pieces of stolen property, mainly car stereo electronics, music devices and power tools together estimated at more than $5,300 in value, were recovered from the suspect vehicle.
As of Tuesday, four Coastside residents had come forward to claim property that was recovered, according to Half Moon Bay Police Detective A.J. Johnson.
The capture of the Oakland men was the second such arrest in less than three weeks by area police agencies. Half Moon Bay Police arrested a 20-year-old Half Moon Bay man on June 18 on charges including possession of stolen property.
“As the weather improves and folks are more likely to be out, we see a slight increase (in these types of burglaries),” he said. “If I could get word out to the community at large, we just need to make sure we’re taking the precautions to lock up and keep things more secure, so we don’t make ourselves targets for these kinds of burglaries.”