Photo: what was confiscated
August 18, 2021 – Ventura County, Ca.
Alert citizens and their readiness to report suspicious activity helped the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s Moorpark Station deputies bust a pair of serial burglars in the early evening of August 16th .
According to VCSD spokesman Det. Sgt. Kevin Lynch, it all began in the pre-dawn hours of August 12th when deputies received a report of “a vehicle parked on the wrong side of the road and blocking traffic” in an upscale Simi Valley neighborhood.
Responding patrol units arrived to discover 41-year-old Porter Ranch resident Gregory Wold sitting in his car and “under the influence of a controlled substance.” He was then taken into custody and his car was searched.
Lo and behold, the cops found “a substantial amount of heroin and methamphetamine” in the vehicle, along with paraphernalia “related to drug sales.”
Once he was in custody and being questioned by deputies determined that Wold had been committing thefts in the local area. But while he was in custody, later that same morning deputies were alerted to “five separate reports in the same neighborhood” various burglaries of vehicles, residences, and businesses.
The ensuing investigation—now in the hands of the Moorpark Station Investigations Bureau—indicated that the rash of burglaries had been committed by “the same group of suspects,” principal among those was 33-year-old local area transient Marcus Marion, known to law enforcement as habituating the Mission Hills neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
Marion was spotted driving a stolen Toyota pickup truck on the evening of August 16 th , whereupon “a coordinated traffic stop” was conducted and he was taken into custody.
Both Marion and Wold were transported to Ventura County Jail. Marion was charged with residential burglary, conspiracy, and vehicle theft, with his bail set at $200,000. Wold was charged with sales of a controlled substance and was “released on his own recognizance.”
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Sheriff’s Department
