Rodolfo Duarte booking photo
HOLLISTER — Hollister PD investigators have been looking for clues to identify a suspect who’s been a thorn in their side since August of 2016, when he began robbing several pharmacies in Hollister
At long last, an arrest has been made. 36-year-old Rodolfo Duarte now sits behind bars after being connected to the myriad robberies which have been plaguing the city.
Duarte’s run began at the Rite-Aid on Airline Highway on August 29, 2016. Since then, he would continue on to random pharmacies until his final one on February 6th at Lucky’s Pharmacy on McCray Street.
Extensive follow-ups were conducted to obtain evidence after each robbery. Investigators pulled surveillance footage, as well as DMV and motorcycle information.
On March 9th, an investigator was on his way home when he spotted the motorcycle they’d been looking for at a local repair shop. He obtained a search warrant the very next morning.
“We have been working this case for quite a long time. I have been bugging our Detectives quite a lot on these cases,” Hollister Police Chief David Westrick said, “This was the break in the case we needed.”
Police executed the warrant on Friday, March 10th, and with the information from the repair shop learned that the suspect owned a home on the 1600 block of Valley View Road. With assistance from the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office, the SB County Probation Department and members of the UNET Task Force arrived at the home with their warrant.
Items were located in the home which connected Duarte to the robberies. He was arrested and booked into the San Benito County Jail on four counts of burglary with bail set to $220,000.
