Riverside police arrest 'snake burglar' who is accused of dozens break-ins
Riverside police have arrested a so-called 'snake burglar' accused of slithering around dozens local businesses before stealing from them.
According to the Riverside Police Department, 32-year-old Christopher Michael Jackson has crept across the floors of Riverside businesses for two years now but has been repeatedly released back into the wild because of the current sentencing laws.
Officers caught him in the act this week and arrested him for 70 commercial burglaries in Riverside. Police said he was recently ordered to serve six sentences of 16 months in jail after pleading to 23 felonies but California law allowed him to get out after serving only 10 days behind bars.
"We're going to wait to see what happens in court if he gets released," said Officer Ryan Railsback.
Railsback said non-violent criminals know how to slink around the system — to plead guilty to some of the charges so the others go way. But, now people prosecuting these cases have to get creative to keep them off the streets.
"We're going to start sending them over incrementally so he doesn't have a chance to plead all of them," said Railsback. "So, if he gets kicked out fo jail due to overcrowding, well he's not going to be on the streets long before he has more warrants out for his arrest."
The snake burglar's bail has been set at $100,000, however, business owners like Brian Perrone are holding back their excitement about the arrest.
"At some point, you got to keep these people in jail and if you don't have the resources in jail to rehabilitate these people then you got to figure that out," said Perrone.
Perrone owns D'elia's, a sandwich shop that was allegedly hit by the slithering burglar.
"Pulled apart the molding for the window and pulled the glass off and crawled his way through," said Perrone. "It's just bizarre and it's frustrating."
