Ventura – In the world of criminality, pursuing activities sufficient to warrant a bail of $2,500,000 may be something of a status symbol; if so, 20-year-old Thousand Oaks resident Lenny Vanhorenbeeck has plenty to be proud of.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Alan Hartkop, Vanhorenbeeck and Ernesto Magana, 26, have been the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation that began in May regarding “a series of armed robberies that spanned over five cities in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.” That detective work by VCSD and Simi Valley Police Department investigators, collaborating with the Crime Analysis Unit of the VCSD, ultimately pointed to Vanhorenbeeck and Magana as the perpetrators of “as many as seven armed robberies” of widely-dispersed gas stations and liquor stores from Camarillo to Canoga Park.
Ernesto Magana
Just before noon on July 2nd, the two suspects were observed leaving their shared residence, at which time detectives greeted the duo with search warrants in hand. The execution of those warrants over a range of individual multiple locations gave clear indication of evidence linking them to the multiple robberies which Hartkop characterized to the media as “a crime spree.”
Both men were summarily taken into custody at the scene without incident, whereupon they were then transported to Ventura County Jail and booked on multiple counts of armed robbery. With Vanhorenbeeck’s bail set at the aforementioned $2.5M, Magana came in a distant second with a bail amount of $1,000,000.
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
