Members of an organized retail burglary crew that hit dozens of Home Depot stores—including those in Gilroy and Morgan Hill—were arrested and charged with felonies in Santa Clara County last week, authorities said.
The suspects were arrested under a new state law written to help confront the rise of retail theft in California. The crew of thieves traveled from Sacramento to Santa Cruz, stealing merchandise from various Home Depot stores nearly 200 times in four months, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
The alleged thieves often struck the same store multiple times. They stole from Home Depot stores in Santa Clara 24 times—including three times at the Gilroy store on San Ysidro Avenue, the DAs office said. They hit the Morgan Hill Home Depot on East Dunne Avenue once, and the store in Emeryville 24 times.
The burglars’ strategy was to “walk in, steal items, walk out,” says a press release from the DAs office.
Four members of the crew were arrested April 29 in a sprawling operation in which agents also raided a storage facility in South San Francisco, and homes in Richmond, San Leandro and South San Francisco, authorities said. Investigators found tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise, including blades, power tools, saws and pliers.
Adolfo Herrera, 45, of Richmond; Wilmer Ayala, 43, of South San Francisco; Daniel Resendiz, 21, of San Leandro; and Jose Martinez, 28, of San Leandro, were arraigned May 1 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. They are charged with multiple counts of retail theft, grand theft, vandalism, and other related crimes, the press release said. If convicted, they face prison.
Authorities from a total of 11 counties in northern California banded together with the Santa Clara County DA to investigate the crime spree.
“Criminals relied on the fact that, by traveling from county to county, they could escape arrest and accountability for their thefts,” DA Jeff Rosen said. “That trick won’t work anymore. Law enforcement has its own crew. If you steal from Santa Cruz and San Jose and Sacramento, you will spend time in prison in California.”
From January through April, and from Sonoma County to Santa Cruz County, the crew stole more than $65,000 worth of goods from Home Depot stores, authorities said. The crew would then resell the contraband at flea markets in the Bay Area.
The DAs office worked closely with Home Depot’s Organized Retail Crime Investigation program and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office to identify and arrest the suspects. The Regional Auto Theft Task Force helped to track the criminal team across the state, the press release added.
Authorities from the sheriff’s office and the other agencies served search warrants on April 29 at four locations in Contra Costa, Alameda and San Mateo counties.
With the consent of the Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sacramento, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo County district attorney’s offices, Santa Clara County is pursuing prosecution of the crime ring under the jurisdictional authority conferred by a new law that went into effect in January, says the press release.
While organized retail thieves often operate across county lines to evade detection, AB 1779 allows local district attorney’s offices to more effectively and flexibly respond to organized retail thieves by allowing a single office to prosecute conduct that took place across county lines.
