Ventura County – In the first weeks of the New Year, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks Police Departments began receiving multiple calls relating to the theft of machinery and gardening equipment from the trucks of landscapers on job sites. The thefts all had the same modus operandi, in that gardeners were always working in the rear yards of residential clients when lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, and gas-powered blowers went missing from the open beds of their service trucks.
As many as 31 such incidents throughout Camarillo, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, and unincorporated areas of Ventura County eventually caught the eye of law enforcement. According to his report to the media, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Pete O’Sullivan indicated that “Camarillo detectives began an extensive investigation, and through collaboration with detectives in Thousand oaks and with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office Lost Hills Station”, surveillance of suspects identified by witnesses as Martin Rodriguez, 25, and Christian Granados, 29, was initiated.
With no apparent awareness that they had fallen under the watchful eye of law enforcement, Rodriguez and Granados were observed by detectives “in the act of stealing equipment”, and were summarily arrested on January 13th. A subsequent search warrant was served on the residences of both men which produced multiple items of stolen property taken from unsuspecting landscapers in recent weeks.
Rodriguez and Granados were transported from the scene of their arrest and booked into Ventura County Jail on multiple counts of grand theft and possession of stolen property. Both men remain in custody, with Granados’ bail set at $10,000 and Rodriguez’s bail set at $250,000.
Photo: Courtesy Facebook.com
Read more:
VCStar: Officials arrest 2 in Camarillo tool theft
EdHat: Landscape equipment thefts
