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Under the cover of early morning darkness, two men systematically whisked thousands of dollars from a local Yukaipa restaurant in the form of fish on Saturday – authorities said.
The 85 Koi fish were looting from robbery operations, including transporting buckets back and forth.
Security videos obtained by the Times show that two individuals have buckets and repeatedly enter and exit the outdoor properties of Yukaipa’s Oakhouse restaurant. The restaurant has a small ranch and customers can observe a variety of exotic animals, including Amazon’s okcatoes, fainting goats and carp fish, said Sylvia Duarte, who owns the business with her husband.
“How can you trust people now?” Duarte said. “We have bone s items in the restaurant and classic cars. This is a unique place you won’t find anywhere.”
David Smith, 42, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of grand burglary and burglary after investigators chased the vehicle from the scene, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office. Smith was held at the detention center on a $30,000 bond on Thursday.
Other suspects remain large.
Saturday’s fishing expedition occurred about a week after Duarte contacted police. Because she began to notice that the number of KOs in the pond appears to be decreasing. Also, certain patterns of fish had disappeared, she said. In total, 85 people were stolen, including Saturday’s theft.
However, there was no threat at the time, so Duarte was told by the authorities that he could not do much.
The motive behind the theft is not yet known, sheriff’s deputies told The Times. However, they noted that if each fish was on sale they could have won between $50 and $1,500 depending on the buyer. They added that only a “small” KOs recovered from Smith’s residence were recovered. Duarte said only five small Koi were returned.
After 400 decorative carp were stolen from an office park outside Washington in 2013, the Washington Post said some collectors would “pay a championship fish up to $25,000.” But one Koi dealer told The Times that it hadn’t acquired anywhere near the price. They go for about $20 for a 10-inch specimen, or $200 for a 2-foot long Koi if kept domestically.
Deputies said it is “now unknown” how the suspect transported all 85 fish and all the larger fish (some) in small containers. “This is the first time in Yukaipa,” they said.
Fish usually grow to 14-18 inches long, but can reach 3 feet. A salesman at Lacoy told the Times that transporting them is easy to do using a bucket filled with water.
For Duarte, Koi was far more valuable than monetary value. She and her husband have been raising Koi for over 20 years and consider it a pet.
Some of the kids visiting the business “have the fish name,” Duarte said. “They are not just us. … Our clients, our customers, all love animals.”
There was a small online protest after Duarte posted on Facebook about the theft on Saturday, she said. One commenter lamented the loss of fish, saying, “I love seeing carp and birds when I go out to eat there.”
Theft sparked communities, and some people began to create theories: “Maybe a bear? I doubt it!” another commenter wrote.
Duarte and the authorities were working on ways to resolve the issue of outdoor property theft.
“It’s difficult to prevent this type of crime in which businesses have outdoor property, and that can’t be secured,” the Sheriff’s Department told the Times in an email. “In this case, the owner had surveillance cameras, which was very helpful in the investigation.”
Duarte said that due to certain fire regulations, it is not permitted to lock gates that provide access to outdoor ranches and other animals. However, after losing 85 KOs, she vowed to understand how to secure the gate. If not, “it could happen again.”
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