Ventura – 23-year-old Ricardo Navarro, a resident of Oxnard, just might be the most hapless and hopeless auto burglar among his peers, and is anticipated to be a finalist in this year’s race for the Criminals Darwin Award.
Clear evidence of that came in the late afternoon of Monday, September 7th, when, while working with a trio of confederates, he was observed plundering a parked car on a busy commercial area street. Several witnesses to his nefarious activity, conducted with the help of another male and two females, called 911 Emergency to alert law enforcement to the immediate need for…some law enforcement.
Before anyone with a gun and a badge arrived on the scene, however, a relative of the vehicle owner—who had left two young children in a vehicle at curbside—alerted other family members to the burglary in progress. At that point, the vehicle owner’s family members made their presence known, which sent Navarro and his crew fleeing from the scene with considerable haste.
But Navarro and the other three burglars had apparently not counted on the outrage of their victims, as, according to the report of the Ventura Police Department Watch Commander, “several family members began chasing them.” Navarro’s three associates hopped into a waiting vehicle and left him behind to face “a 19-year-old female and her 44-year-old father” both related to the car’s owner. But Navarro was apparently prepared to defend himself, and he blasted his pursuers with pepper spray. With them now temporarily disabled, Navarro dropped the pepper spray and renewed his flight.
But the 19-year-old was completely undeterred by the pepper spray assault, picked up Navarro’s can, and ran him to the ground, where she summarily returned the favor and immobilized him by emptying the pepper spray canister into his eyes. Thus immobilized, she held Navarro until her other family members arrived to detain him until police arrived on the scene.
Upon their arrival, deputies took Navarro into custody, arrested him, and had him transported to Ventura County Jail where he was booked for robbery, possession of a controlled substance, being a felon in possession of pepper spray, and parole violation.
Navarro’s home away from jail.
Navarro was reacquainted with some very familiar surroundings at the Ventura County Jail. His latest booking marks his twentieth time since December 2011, when he was 19-years-old and arrested for possession of a controlled substance for sale, along with drug paraphernalia. That was followed by an arrest for street terrorism, a charge normally associated with gang activity, along with vandalism of $5,000 or more in damage. His next arrest in August 2012 was for grand theft, along with public intoxication, followed by an arrest for possessing burglar’s tools in November.
Since then he has been arrested on a fairly regular basis – never going more than four months between bookings – on various charges of drug and paraphernalia possession and being under the influence, burglary and possession of burglary tools, vandalism, street terrorism and gang participation. During this entire history, when not in jail, he has resided at the Oxnard Mobile Home Lodge, off Commercial Avenue in central Oxnard.
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking, Google Maps
