Arden Fair Mall Security Tapes Help Police Arrest Burglary Suspects
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Arden Fair Mall video surveillance footage helped Sacramento police track down two men they suspect are responsible for hundreds of vehicle burglaries.
Surveillance shows the suspects backing into an open space. One man pops the lock of a car, and then the trunk while the driver waits. The man then casually cleans the trunk out.
"To the average eye, you'd think, 'oh he's just unloading stuff.' You wouldn't think he was committing a car burglary," Arden Fair Mall Security Chief Steve Reed said.
Arden Fair Mall security advised police on Jan. 31 that they captured the suspects on video breaking into multiple vehicles in the mall's parking lot.
After investigating and reviewing the video surveillance footage, police identified Javier Garcia, 25, and Dominic Eales, 19, as the suspects. They were arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with burglary and conspiracy. They were released from the Sacramento County Jail on bond later that day.
Police say then men have done this routine hundreds of times.
"People gotta eat. They ain't got jobs, that's the only way they can get money. I can't knock 'em for it," said one man.
Investigators think they're responsible for hundreds of car break-ins across the Sacramento region in the past year.
Eales' mom said her 19-year-old son wasn't home when CBS13 knocked. She did seem to know all about the charges he faces.
"(Police) told us it was four, not hundreds," Eales' mother said, adding that she is disappointed in her son.
During the course of the investigation, officers located a vehicle seen in the surveillance video and were able to locate stolen property taken during the burglaries.
