MOUNTAIN VIEW (KRON) — Car break-ins happen all the time in the Bay Area and it isn’t often that victims get their items back, but that’s exactly what happened in Mountain View on Thursday.
Eight victims from crimes spanning three cities got their bags and laptops back after detectives arrested two suspects with auto burglary charges.
The calls started coming in around 11 a.m. on Thursday after reports of a suspicious vehicle and two men casing cars on the 1000 block of Grant Road in Mountain View.
Witnesses say the men were trying to open car doors and were driving through parking lots.
“We responded quickly but unfortunately at the time we were unable to locate the vehicle,” said Katie Nelson, spokesperson with the Mountain View Police Department.
Mountain View police officers did not give up and callers continued to report the activity.
The car was spotted just a few minutes later by witnesses on Middlefield Avenue and Whisman Road
“About 30 minutes later we actually got a call from some other people as well who were extremely vigilant letting us know that there had been another auto burglary in the same area,” Nelson said.
Two men, 19-year old Ricardo Zepeda and 20-year-old Juan Rodriguez of Richmond, were eventually arrested.
In their vehicle, purses, laptops — all reported stolen from San Jose, Sunnyvale and Mountain View.
“As a result, we have been able to identify and contact all of the victims which is unfortunately very rare in auto burglaries just because the turn around is so quick and we are in the process of getting those items back to them,” Nelson said.
Victims in this case were lucky, but most of the time if your car is broken into, and items are stolen, it’s tough to get anything back.
“Suspects are now breaking back windows to look into trunks to see if anything is in the trunk,” Nelson said. “Our biggest advisement, just take it with you even if you are only gone For a couple of minutes. There’s nothing worse than coming back and finding that your car has been burglarized.”
Both suspects were detained on the 500 block of North Rengstorff Avenue.
They are both being held at the Santa Clara County Jail.
