GILROY
– Those who thought a string of cat burglaries ended when city
police arrested Robert Heredia a month ago, think again.
GILROY – Those who thought a string of cat burglaries ended when city police arrested Robert Heredia a month ago, think again.
At about 3 a.m. Tuesday, the Rodriguez family, of 7554B Forest St., woke to the sound of two burglars in the living room.
It was a scary experience, Caritana Rodriguez said.
Caritana’s husband, Arturo, chased the two men off, but police have yet to catch them. One was African American, the other Hispanic, Caritana said. One ran north on Forest, and the other ran down an alley westward.
Stolen was a video game system and games, a bag containing work-related papers and Arturo’s wallet, containing his driver’s license, Social Security card and credit card, according to police.
The burglars didn’t have to break any windows or doors to get into the Rodriguez house, which sits behind a house under construction, invisible from the street.
“Every night I go to sleep with the doors open,” Caritana said. She’s been doing it for the three years they’ve lived there with no problems.
Now, she plans on closing the doors at night and locking them.
Police define a cat burglary as a stealthy one where the victims are present, usually asleep, while the criminal attempts to steal from them. Tuesday morning’s cat burglary was the seventh in Gilroy in a month-and-a-half.
Police caught Heredia on Nov. 2 running and trying to hide within a block of two alleged burglaries on Santa Theresa Drive. A resident of one house ran up as police were arresting Heredia, pointed at him and said she had seen him at her house, on the same block, minutes before.
Heredia was found with $500 cash on his person, the same amount reported stolen minutes before from a house a block away.
He is currently in county jail facing two felony burglary charges and could face more if fingerprints link him to four other cat burglaries that took place Oct. 16 on Stephen Court and Carignane Drive.
“The (Oct. 16) cases are open, but we suspect he is linked to those,” Gilroy police investigative Sgt. Jack Robinson said Tuesday.
The various burglaries were similar in that they occurred between 2 and 5 a.m. with residents sleeping inside. None were break-ins; the entries were through un-locked doors and windows or with garage-door openers.
