Photo: Evan Fralix
Ventura County – Throughout their lives, identical twin siblings are often the subject of some curiosity, and are always noticed whenever they’re in the company of one another. Given the public fascination with this unusual genetic phenomenon that has practically compelled Hollywood to make an annual tradition of exploiting it in films like “The Parent Trap”, “Twins”, and “Dead Ringers”, when twins engage in criminal activities as a pair, avoiding discovery and apprehension by law enforcement is a unique challenge indeed.
Evidence of this came on December 20th, when 18-year-old Thousand Oaks residents Ian and Evan Fralix were identified and arrested pursuant to the December 18th nighttime burglary of The Merry Hall Tree Thrift Shop in that same city. According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Robert Davidson, it all began just after 8:00 p.m. when “a reporting party notified police that two subjects had just fled a closed business.”
Ian Fralix
That report prompted an immediate response by Thousand Oaks Police Department deputies who found no suspects on the scene. But they did recover and inspect surveillance video that “provided clear images of both subjects who appeared to be twins” and who were immediately recognized “from previous law enforcement investigations.”
Just two days later, detectives spotted the Fralix brothers in the company of 19-year-old Thousand Oaks resident Ryan Doran and a 16-year-old male juvenile. When contact with the quartet was initiated, all four suspects took off running in an attempt to evade. As described by Davidson, the four young men were “quickly captured,” whereupon all were taken into custody.
Ian and Evan Fralix, along with Doran, were transported to Ventura County Jail where the twins were booked on charges of commercial burglary and Doran was held on an outstanding arrest warrant. The juvenile male was transported to Ventura County Juvenile Hall, where he was booked on his very own active arrest warrant.
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
