Warrant issued for Petaluma burglary suspect

PETALUMA – Fingerprints lifted from a partially open window at the scene of a burglary attempt led Petaluma police to issue an arrest warrant for a 22-year-old man Wednesday.

A fingerprint found on a window led olice to identify a suspect in a Petaluma burglary.

On Feb. 2, a husband and wife were asleep in their Olive Street residence when the wife was awakened by a noise in the kitchen. Believing the noise was caused by one of the family pets, she went to the kitchen to investigate, only to be surprised to find a man standing in a darkened room.

She screamed for her husband. The suspect immediately fled through a nearby door.

Petaluma police and their police dog arrived at the house around 10 p.m. and searched for the suspect without success. Officers surmised that the suspect entered the house through a partially opened window. He may have fled in a vehicle that was parked nearby.

“The suspect was in the house long enough to stack a number of the homeowners’ possessions near a door in preparation for stealing them,” said Lt. Mike Cook. “We ran the fingerprints through a national fingerprint identification system and obtained a match on a possible suspect.”

That suspect is Shane Michael Bugnatto, 22. His current address is unknown.

The next night on the 900 block of Daniel Drive, a 20-year-old white male was approached by two Hispanic men in their late teens wearing blue bandannas over their faces. One man was holding a handgun. He grabbed a bag filled with the vicitm’s clothing and personal times.

Petaluma police responded to the victim’s call. In searching the area they found the victim’s belongings on Ivy Lane. A witness saw a man wearing a white t-shirt jump a fence into the backyards along the 800 block of Crinella Drive. A yard by yard search failed to produce the suspects.