Photo: Junior Martinez
Ventura County – Some commercial burglars are cautious, careful, and sneaky. In the wee hours of the morning, they climb through ventilator shafts and drop down through the ceiling to gain access to premises.
Others pick the locks securing the goods within. Some even hide in storage closets and wait for the proprietor to close up for the night, unwittingly locking the burglar inside.
Less sophisticated burglars use the techniques apparently employed by 29-year-old Camarillo resident Junior Martinez. According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Cameron Henderson, it was a couple hours after midnight on January 18th when Martinez was spotted by “a concerned citizen” who called 911 to report “suspicious circumstances” outside the Metro PCS store in Camarillo.
Responding patrol deputies accessed the store’s video surveillance records and observed a suspect breaking into the business by throwing a rock through the glass doors. The suspect then “stole merchandise and fled the area.” That video quickly allowed deputies to identify Martinez, whereupon his description as broadcast to patrol units in the area.
Thirty minutes later, an alarm call from a nearby liquor store brought deputies to that location, where the front door window had been smashed open. While investigating the scene, other deputies spotted Martinez in flight from the area and “quickly took him into custody.
Martinez, who was out on bail with probation terms granted just two weeks earlier, was transported to Ventura County Jail and booked on multiple charges of commercial burglary where he remains on a no-bail hold.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
