Corey Lee Garrelts
Ventura County – The average run-of-the-mill residential burglar today faces a number of challenges unique to the digital age.
Not only does a crook need to muster the courage to enter a stranger’s home in broad daylight with the intent to remove property not belonging to him at the risk of being observed by nosey neighbors or alarming a sleeping dog, today he faces the very real possibility of being unwittingly captured on recording devices wired to hidden cameras within the residence.
That, apparently, is precisely what took place in December 2016 when Corey Lee Garrelts, a 27-year-old North Hollywood resident, entered a home in the 2000 block of Avenida Vista Del Monte in Simi Valley and proceeded to burglarize the place.
According to the Simi Valley Police Department Watch Commander’s report to the media, it was “through surveillance footage of the incident taken from a camera inside the victim’s bedroom” that—some eight months later—led to the positive identification of Garrelts as the culprit.
When, in the pre-dawn hours of August 30th Simi Valley Police Department detectives served a search warrant on Garrelt’s North Hollywood residence, they recovered “items taken during the crime” in Simi Valley, but did not find Garrelts on the premises.
Garrelts was later found at a house in Sun Valley, “but initially refused to come out and surrender.” Eventually realizing the futility of his resistance, Garrelts did step outside, and was immediately taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on charges of felony first-degree burglary with his bail set at $150,000.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
