Photo: Stock Image
In what appears to be the second in a growing trend of non-motorized vehicle-related crimes in the community, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department uniformed patrol deputies attached to the Camarillo Patrol Services Division responded to a 911 Call for Service on August 11th involving the theft of a large, heavy-duty utility dump trailer.
According to VCSD spokesman Detective Kris Doepking, “a Camarillo business owner” called the cops when he found his trailer nowhere to be seen, which brought Camarillo Investigations Bureau detectives to the case as they promptly “canvassed the surrounding businesses for video surveillance” materials. Once they located video records of the area during the suspected time of the thievery, they observed “a suspect vehicle driving toward the business during the early morning hours” on the day in questions. The video record clearly indicated the suspect vehicle “fleeing the scene with the attached stolen trailer.”
With that evidence in hand, additional investigation ensued, leading to the identification of 36-year-old Sylmar resident Jose Juan Morales-Muniz, as well as to the discovery of additional evidence tying Morales-Muniz to the stolen trailer.
Three weeks later, with area law enforcement on the lookout for him, Moralez-Muniz was the subject of a traffic stop just as the sun was rising over the horizon on the morning of October 4th, whereupon he was summarily taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail. He was booked on a charge of unlawful taking of a vehicle, with his bail set at $40,000.
