7/28/2010 - Burglars arrested after they are spotted on surveillance camera

Redlands Police arrested two suspected burglars after an RPD surveillance camera operator spotted them wheeling what later proved to be a large flat-screen TV through a downtown parking lot early Tuesday morning.

At about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday, July 27, a surveillance camera operator in the Redlands Police Department’s Dispatch Center observed a man pushing a large object on a dolly near 5th and State Street. As dispatchers directed Police officers to the area the surveillance camera operator followed the man as he continued to a nearby retail plaza on Redlands Boulevard where he met another subject.

Officers arrived and located one subject near a parking lot at 5th Street and Redlands Boulevard. The suspect, a 15-year-old Redlands boy, fled on foot, leaving the dolly behind with a 60-inch flat-screen television, but was quickly caught.

On further investigation officers determined that the teen and another suspect had burglarized a business at 18 E. State Street and used a dolly stolen from behind another business on 5th Street to move the stolen television.

Investigators identified the second suspect as 19-year-old Jesse Angel Nunez. Nunez was located at his home on Post Street in Redlands. Both suspects were arrested for burglary. Nunez was transported to the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino. The juvenile was cited and released to his parent.

The property was returned to the business.

Lt. Travis Martinez credited the presence of surveillance cameras and an alert camera operator in quickly catching the burglars and returning the stolen property.

“If it were not for the cameras,” said Martinez, “we likely would not have known about the burglary until it was reported later that day. It would have been much more difficult to identify the suspects and the property might never have been recovered before it changed hands.”

Anyone with additional information is asked to contact Redlands Police Dispatch at (909) 798-7681. Anonymous tips can be provided by texting 274637 using the keyword “REDTIP.”