Pablo Acosta Reyes
Ventura County – Holding down a job at any of Ventura County’s several Pizza Hut restaurants may be more hazardous than one might surmise, simply based on the recent frequency with which they’ve been the targets of armed robberies.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective James Sullivan, one such crime was reported to the Thousand Oaks Police Department on October 1st. The ensuing investigation by the Thousand Oaks Police Major Crimes Division pointed to Pablo Acosta Reyes, a 25-year-old resident of the City of Ventura, as the principal suspect. As it happened, just ten days later, Reyes was contacted in the early evening of October 11th by detectives of the Oxnard Police Department pursuant to his failure to report to his probation officer, whereupon he was arrested and “booked into custody” at the Ventura County Jail. At the time of that arrest, however, “evidence related to the robbery” of the Pizza Hut on October 1st was discovered.
The Pizza Hut in the Newbury Park Place shopping center in Thousand Oaks.
With collaborative efforts between detectives of the Oxnard Police Department and investigators of the TOPD Major Crimes Unit, Reyes was soon tied to the armed robbery and received a jailhouse visit from the TOPD detectives who informed him that he was once again under arrest and was being charged with two counts of felony second degree robbery. At that point, his initial undisclosed bail on the Oxnard case was raised to $200,000, with his Superior Court arraignment scheduled for October 22nd.
Reyes has a long history of trouble with Ventura County law enforcement. Earlier this year, on April 14, he was booked for hit-and-run, reckless evasion with wanton disregard for public safety, being under the influence of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, and driving without a license or registration. In February he had been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Available records going back to 2011 show an arrest in April of that year, when he was 21-years-old, for possession and transportation of a controlled substance for sales, and driving without a license. That was followed in July with a charge of resisting arrest or obstructing an officer.
In October of 2012 he was arrested for unauthorized entry into a home, and resisting arrest. In that incident, he was wanted on warrants for failing to appear in court on earlier drug and weapons charges, and tried to hide in a vacant home on Johnson Drive in Ventura. He was with another wanted man, Richard Fish, and a woman. Fish and the woman surrendered, but Reyes refused, and was thought to be armed. According to the VCstar, after a four hour SWAT team standoff, he was located hiding in the house’s bathtub. No gun was found, but a power nailing tool that looked like a gun was located in the house.
Then in May of 2014 he was booked for possessing a controlled substance for sale, and in October 2014 for vehicle theft and possession of burglary tools and stolen property. Further details of those incidents were not available.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
Read More: VCStar – 2012
CrimeVoice staff contributed to this report
