Ventura County – As a profession, burglary may have many things to offer: flexible working hours, casual dress code, frequent travel, high hourly rate of pay. Of course, should one’s professional activities attract the attention of law enforcement, those job benefits may suddenly pale in contrast to the downside of potential prison terms. That potential commonly rears its ugly head simply by way of the necessity to convert the physical assets stolen by way of burglary into something more fungible, i.e., cash.
Cue the local pawnshop, where representatives of law enforcement agencies systematically seek stolen goods as they investigate unsolved burglaries within their jurisdiction. According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Javier Chavez, it was at a Simi Valley pawnshop on May 18th that Ventura County Sheriff’s Department deputies, in the course of their investigation into a local area burglary that took place a month prior, discovered “high-end jewelry and other luxury items” which had been reported as stolen at that time.
By the time detectives had investigated the records maintained as a matter of law by the pawn shop, they promptly connected the suspect items to Anthony Louis Duran, an 18-year old Fillmore resident. Shortly thereafter, contact was made with Duran, and he was taken into custody without incident. It apparently didn’t take Duran long to identify his cohorts in crime, a male juvenile from Fillmore, and Raheem Lewis Wright, a 19-year old from Simi Valley.
Both Duran and Wright were transported to Ventura County Jail and booked on charges of first degree residential burglary and conspiracy, while the male juvenile was booked into Ventura County Juvenile Detention Center, proving once again that every business—particularly the illegal variety—has a downside.
