Cesar Ramirez
VENTURA COUNTY — There are so many things a criminal has to worry about today that his predecessors in crime never had to consider. Setting aside the last few decades’ advancements in forensics and the plethora of sophisticated techniques and devices available to law enforcement today, imagine the checklist of concerns for, let’s say, your common residential burglar:
Advanced record keeping via the National Crime Information Center.
Improved communication among jurisdictions.
DNA and all the scientific stuff that goes with it.
Security cameras everywhere.
Remembering to take your cellphone with you.
It’s that last little item that was apparently overlooked by 23-year-old Thousand Oaks resident and documented gang member Cesar Ramirez, and which led to his August 24th arrest on suspicion of having pulled off an August 4th broad daylight burglary of a West Hillcrest Drive residence.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Joseph Horswill, when Thousand Oaks Police Department deputies arrived at the reported crime scene, they found a cellphone not belonging to the reporting victim.
The phone was promptly turned over to the VCSD Special Enforcement Unit who “obtained a search warrant for the cellular phone and located texts and photographs” that led them directly to Ramirez.
Not only did they find photographs of a personal and social nature on the phone, but they also discovered photos of “items that matched the description of items” taken from yet another West Hillcrest Drive home on August 3rd.
Ramirez—already on parole for grand theft auto—was contacted on August 24th, whereupon he was arrested on multiple burglary charges and parole violation. He was transported to Ventura County Jail for booking, where he will presumably have the opportunity to consider the importance of remembering where one puts their cell phone.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
