Burglary Squad Makes Surprise Haul

A special police team went undercover in Lawndale this week looking for one group of suspected thieves, but it ended up finding another, authorities said.

The South Bay Burglary Team, made up of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and police officers from Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, had several men in Lawndale Monday after street informants told them that two men were planning to burglarize businesses in the area.

The detectives checked on the house where the suspected thieves were staying, “but they weren’t active at all, so we decided to look for something else,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Vic Garcia, the head of the team.

Suspicious Behavior

Detectives were watching in unmarked cars when they saw three men in a pickup truck in south Lawndale, stopping occasionally to ask merchants if they wanted to buy an air compressor.

The three men told merchants they were down-on-their-luck house painters who wanted to sell the $600 compressor for $150, Garcia said. But burglary team investigators became suspicious, Garcia said, because the men were trying to sell the compressor “right off the back of the truck,” which had license plates taken from another car.

The suspects eventually sold the compressor to a businessman and were arrested several blocks away as they stopped to cash the $150 check, Garcia said. Detectives learned that the compressor was stolen from an equipment yard in the Lennox area, Garcia said.

Alleged Confession

After the arrest, one of the suspects said he had committed as many as 20 burglaries, most of them in Lawndale and nearby cities, to buy cocaine, Garcia said.

Jonathan Bell, 28, of Hermosa Beach, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in South Bay Municipal Court to six counts of burglary and two counts of grand theft. Detectives are still investigating more than a dozen other burglaries that Bell claims to have committed, according to Garcia.

Arrested with Bell were Richard Jaquez, 43, of Lawndale, who pleaded not guilty to one count of burglary, and 30-year-old John Pedroza of Inglewood, who has been charged with violating parole in an drug-possession case. Pedroza has not been arraigned.

All three suspects are being held in the Los Angeles County Jail, with bail set at $5,000.

Series of Crimes

None of the suspects could be reached for comment, but investigators said Bell admitted to a series of other crimes and told the following story:

He took a job in late October with a Gardena auto-body parts store. On his second day on the job, he was asked to deliver parts to several locations. Bell made the deliveries in the company pickup truck and received cash payments totaling about $750.

“He said that when he had the $750 in his pocket the temptation was just too great,” Garcia said. “He had to go out and score” drugs.

Garcia said Bell described how he took the cash and the pickup to go on a 2-day cocaine binge. When the money ran out, Bell allegedly said he began burglarizing homes in Lawndale and selling the merchandise or trading it directly for more drugs.

Bell said he stole televisions, videocassette recorders, cameras and microwave ovens, Garcia said. Detectives estimated that the average haul was $650 in each of the burglaries.

Detectives are continuing efforts to connect the three men to other unsolved residential burglaries by matching their fingerprints with those found at the crime scenes.