REDDING – A pair of residential burglars were caught the same day thanks to a neighbor with a camera, and the suspects’ own ankle bracelets.
On Saturday morning, August 16, a resident on Jewell Lane in southwest Redding saw two men enter a neighbor’s home and remove property, loading it into their vehicle, according to a Redding Police press release. Perhaps not sure if they belonged there or not, the neighbor did not call police, but did take several photographs of the two men and the vehicle.
When the homeowner returned later, he saw that his house had been burglarized, and his neighbor told him what had happened, and the photos that were taken of the incident. The victim called police at 10:42 that morning, and officers responded to investigate. They recognized one of the suspects as Jacob Michael Short, a 30-year-old Palo Cedro resident. Short had been arrested in September 2013, and again in April of this year on an outstanding warrant and probation violations. He was currently on supervised probation, and monitored by a GPS ankle bracelet.
Officers took both suspects into custody on Cameo Court.
Short was tracked by means of the ankle bracelet to a house on Cameo Court in central Redding. The tracking system identified a second subject at the same location also on GPS monitoring, 34-year-old Anthony Joseph Messina, who resides in Redding, but not at that location. Messina’s file photos matched the man seen in the photos with Short from the burglary scene.
It is somewhat ironic that Messina was not the one initially identified from the photos. His history with area law enforcement is much more extensive than Short’s. Records show at least 20 arrests for him since 2006, with charges ranging from burglary, narcotics possession, disorderly conduct under the influence, resisting arrest, and numerous parole violations and failure to appear charges. His most recent arrest was for burglary in July of this year. He was just released on Friday, August 15, the day before this burglary, on supervised probation, and fitted with the GPS ankle bracelet.
Redding Police called on the Highway Patrol air units to assist while they converged on the Cameo Court location, but they were able to locate the two suspects easily enough, both conveniently in the same car shown in the burglary scene photos. They were stopped and taken into custody without trouble. Most of the stolen property was also recovered. They were booked at the familiar Shasta County Jail on first degree burglary, conspiracy, and active warrants. They are being held without bail, and relieved of the ankle bracelets, at least for the time being.
