Police detectives in Irvine, California have apprehended five individuals suspected of involvement in a residential break-in on Easter Sunday. Authorities believe that this group is linked to a series of at least five burglaries across Southern California.
Home security cameras caught the burglars in action. They were dressed as Amazon delivery workers.
Guolin Wang was still in shock on Friday after his home in the Great Park neighborhood was ransacked and burglarized on Easter Sunday.
Documents, credit cards and tens of thousands of dollars worth of property were all gone.
“I could never imagine things like this would happen to my family. I have no idea why they came to our house,” Wang said.
During a press conference Friday, Irvine police said the family may have been targeted by a transnational organized crime ring.
Surveillance video shows a door knock by a woman on Easter at 1:30 p.m. while the family was out for brunch. A white SUV sits parked out front.
Minutes later, sensors notified Wang that someone went into his home through a side window. That’s when Wang says he called police.
The sequence of events unfolded as follows: a man disguised as an Amazon delivery worker approaches the residence, concealing his identity with a mask and gloves. Shortly after the initial knock on the door, at 1:50 p.m., three men dash out of the house carrying a backpack and a suitcase. They swiftly board the same white SUV waiting outside and make their getaway, managing to flee before law enforcement arrives on the scene.
Irvine Chief of Police Michael Kent said, after forming a containment perimeter, an officer pulled over a vehicle he called suspicious.
Initially claiming to be a food delivery driver, the individual behind the wheel was found to be deceptive upon closer scrutiny. He was taken into custody for traffic-related offenses, and further investigation led to the recovery of incriminating evidence from inside the vehicle.
Body cam video shows the arrests at a park in Fontana, California on Thursday after almost a month of police work. Police said four men and a woman from Colombia were arrested.
Irvine Police Detective Sgt. Adam Pettinger called them a “professional burglary group.”
After several weeks of surveillance, police recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in suspected stolen property after serving search warrants in two homes and a storage unit in Fontana and Colton, California.
“Cash, jewelry, designer handbags and four guns, three of which have already been determined to have been stolen,” Pettinger said.
Investigators said among the items found was property stolen from Wang’s home.
“I was thinking one of the selling points for this community in Irvine is the safety, right? It ranked as the safest city in the U.S., but I would never imagine these things could happen,” Wang said.
Detectives said they believe the same group of suspects is connected to another burglary caught on surveillance video in early April, and said the crew may be behind as many as five burglaries in Southern California.
The five suspects were booked into the O.C. Jail on various charges, including burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of narcotics.
Amazon said in a statement, “We’ve reached out to the Irvine Police Department and are working to support their investigation.”
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