Rialto police arrested two people Thursday in connection with a string of storage burglaries spanning several months across San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties.
A search warrant executed by police at an “additional storage unit” in San Bernardino uncovered $100,000 worth of stolen medical supplies, collectibles and power tools inside the storage unit.
Police said the two stole from various storage locations and used their own storage at the same location to store the stolen items.
“So far, what we have found in this warehouse is over $100,000 in property,” said Rialto Police Sergeant David Padilla.
A second search warrant was executed on Fontana’s home, and two people were arrested on suspicion of burglary. Police say Eric Navarrete and Cassandra Arteaga are suspected of breaking into at least 24 warehouses in multiple counties.
“I didn’t know that my stuff was going to come back, because it’s as valuable as dental stuff. It’s very small, but it’s valuable.” said Xiang Yan, whose warehouse was targeted.
Yang rushed to the San Bernardino location as soon as Rialto police informed him that some of the valuables had been recovered. Two months ago, Yang reported that more than $30,000 in dental supplies had been stolen from a storage unit in Rialto’s “additional storage space.”
“I didn’t expect him to come back. We didn’t have any,” Yang said.
Rialto police contacted multiple possible victims and identified some of the items recovered from the robbery unit.
“They seemed to have emptied the store. Obviously, I recognized a lot of things in my unit right away. There are still a lot of things missing at this point, but the majority of them are mine. I knew right away,” Christopher Smith said.
Police said the investigation had been going on for several weeks after the storage facility provided valuable information and surveillance images linking the car to the theft.
Rialto Police told NBC4 they were able to return $64,000 worth of stolen property to its rightful owner and urged anyone who may have had items stolen from the storage unit to contact police immediately. are.
