A housekeeper was arrested Thursday, May 2 after evidence connected her to the ransacking and theft of property from her employer’s Santa Monica home.
This story begins on Thursday, April 25, at 7:45 pm, when officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to the 900 block of 19th Street in order to investigate a residential burglary report.
Upon arrival the officers spoke with the victims who told them that they had departed from the premises at 8 am that morning and that when they had left the premises were locked up securely.
When they returned at 6 pm that evening they happened to notice that the front door of the residence was open.
They entered and discovered that the whole place had been ransacked.
They noted that several items were missing.
The officers could not find any other point of forced entry and concluded that the front door was the place where the burglars had entered, possibly by the door being unlocked, or by use of a key.
The residents maintained that they had locked it when they left earlier that day.
Forensic (CSI) units were called out, and they processed the premises for fingerprints and DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms) evidence.
As a result of this forensic activity a man was identified as someone who did not have permission to be inside the residence.
On Thursday, May 2, at 9:08 am officers went to visit the housekeeper of the burgled residence. This woman lived in the 800 block of 66th Street in Los Angeles.
The male suspect was located at this address and taken into custody.
The officers also discovered some of the stolen items from the burgled residence inside the housekeeper’s home.
The officers thus arrested the housekeeper as well.
The male suspect, aged 32, was charged with burglary and his bail was set at $50,000.
The housekeeper, aged 29, and also of Los Angeles, was charged with receiving stolen property.
Bail was not granted to this woman, as she was placed on an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) hold.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
