Gilroy
– When Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man attempting to
burglarize a home in unincorporated Morgan Hill, they suspected the
man could be involved in other crimes.
A week later, their Oct. 30 arrest of Julio Cesar Rodriguez, 30,
led them to four other suspects involved in at least eight
burglaries.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – When Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man attempting to burglarize a home in unincorporated Morgan Hill, they suspected the man could be involved in other crimes.
A week later, their Oct. 30 arrest of Julio Cesar Rodriguez, 30, led them to four other suspects involved in at least eight burglaries.
Two men and one woman were arrested in San Martin Wednesday, and another man arrested Friday and at least some of the stolen property – worth thousands of dollars – has been recovered.
Arrested at 13515 Murphy Ave. Wednesday were Anacleto Rodriguez, 34, Rodriguez’s brother who lived on the property; Claudia Rivera, 30, Rodriguez’s girlfriend who also lived on the property, and Silverio Resendez, 24, of 1095 Las Animas Ave. in Gilroy. Hugo Dereza, 29, also of 13515 Murphy Ave., was arrested at home Friday.
Sheriff’s Detective Julian Quiñonez said Julio Rodriguez was burglarizing homes at least as far back as July, because he was arrested wearing a leather jacket reported stolen during a burglary that month.
The more recent theft that connected him to the other suspects occurred Oct. 28, when Rodriguez allegedly entered a home on the 10000 block of New Avenue and stole checks, credit cards, personal belongings including several Mexican rodeo suits worth $800 to $900 each, 15 pairs of exotic skin cowboy boots, custom-made belts and large belt buckles.
Later that day, Rodriguez tried to withdraw money from the victim’s account using the man’s Mexican identification card. After spending an hour in the bank because he didn’t know the correct account information he fled. Quiñonez said he obtained the surveillance tape from the bank a few days later, just after Rodriguez was arrested for a separate attempted burglary.
Thinking he might be able to recover some of the New Avenue victim’s property, deputies went to Rodriguez’s address, where they arrested Resendez, who was wearing a belt buckle stolen from the home, and Rivera, who was wearing a stolen leather jacket and had stolen property – including belt buckles, belts, boots, a $750 sombrero, home movies, disposable cameras and other items – in her mobile home.
Sheriff’s deputies also found Anacleto Rodriguez on the property, wearing a pair of ostrich skin boots stolen from the New Avenue home. He also was connected to a theft at Avila’s Market in San Martin, where he and Julio had attempted to use a stolen credit card.
“A witness was able to pick out Anacleto from a photo line-up,” Quiñonez said.
The fifth suspect, Dereza, was arrested when deputies returned to 13515 Murphy Ave. on Friday afternoon. He consented to a search of his house, where they found property from several different burglaries, including stolen credit cards, a samurai sword, a horseshoe set, a power painter, power tools and microphones.
In all, Sheriff’s deputies recovered between $6,000 and $7,000 in stolen property, Quiñonez said.
“It’s never-ending,” he said. “There’s probably more cases we’ll be able to identify, but we’re going to have to go back, sort through all the property here. … It’s unfortunate we’re not able to get all the property, but at least we’ve been able to recover some of it and make some of these arrests.”
On an average Monday, Quiñonez said he has five to six unsolved weekend burglaries to investigate. This Monday, he said he had one.
The suspects were dayworkers, and Quiñonez urged be cautious when hiring the casual laborers.
Anyone with information on recent burglaries or who has been a victim may contact the Sheriff’s San Martin substation at 846-3650.
