Photo: Stock Image
February 18, 2023 – Ventura County, Ca.
44-year-old Oxnard resident Jose Miguel Hernandez may not be your run-of-the-mill crook, as evidenced by his inclination for disguising his own vehicle in order to commit a series of thefts.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Oren Ryerson, an investigation of a stolen “covered trailer” report in the unincorporated area of Oxnard on December 24, 2022 included a review of multiple surveillance videos which identified a sports utility vehicle involved in the theft. As indicated on the videos, the SUV bore “distinctive markings which appeared to have been hand-painted onto it.” A search for that vehicle—which would have been easy enough to identify, considering those markings—proved fruitless in spite of the use of “numerous investigative tools.”
But nearly two months later, on February 15th, the Christmas Eve victim spotted “what he believed to be the suspect vehicle” towing a motorcycle transport trailer, whereupon he promptly called the cops. Responding deputies attached to the VCSD Headquarters Patrol Station arrived at the scene, made contact with Hernandez, and confirmed that—in spite of the fact that “portions of the SUV he was driving had been hand painted “to disguise it in order to avoid apprehension”—was the same one used in the Christmas Eve trailer theft.
Further investigation indicated that the motorcycle transport trailer attached to the tow hitch on Hernandez’s SUV “had recently been stolen” from an Oxnard location. Hernandez was then taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on multiple felony vehicle thefts, possession of a controlled substance, and misappropriation of found property with his bail set at $60,000.
by Robert L. McCullough
