Gotcha: Alert Citizen Action Leads to Felony Arrest

Sherman Oaks Senior Lead Officer Ron Carter issued this message.

Once again, our Neighborhood Watch Groups and residents in Southern Sherman Oaks demonstrate that they are taking back their communities by being the "Eyes and Ears" of Law-Enforcement. Here is another example:

On January 19, 2012 at approximately 8:45 p.m., a member of the Encanto Drive Neighborhood Watch observed a male suspect, who appeared to be trying the door handles of parked vehicles in the area at the 15000 block of Encanto Drive. The resident was out walking his dog and was able to obtain an excellent description of this suspect, as well as the last location he was seen. A second caller from the Neighborhood reported a similar suspect along the 3700 block of Sheridge Drive.

Officers responded quickly and observed a male, matching the descriptions, now in the 3600 block of Saugus Avenue and made a pedestrian stop to investigate. This suspect was found to be in possession of a large number of credit cards which were not in his name, California Identification belonging to someone else, a wallet with initials matching the cards found, sunglasses & eyeglasses, GPS Systems, cell-phone chargers and other items which were tracked back to victims from this same general area.

Thanks to the quick action of the Neighborhood Watch members in this area, the equally fast response of officers, another Felony Suspect was removed from our community. The investigation traced his actions back to a residence and he was booked for Residential Burglary, with multiple other charges for the Thefts and Burglaries from Motor Vehicles.

Great job by all persons involved and you know your names!
Your Los Angeles Police Department, Van Nuys Division Detectives and Senior Lead Officers applaud your strong participation in Community Policing at it's finest.

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Contact Information:
Ronald Carter
Van Nuys
818-374-5408
23838@lapd.lacity.org