Two of 4 wire theft suspects nabbed in Mission Hills – NBC Los Angeles
Los Angeles Police Division introduced the arrest of two suspects in Mission Hills and the restoration of $50,000 price of copper wire.
The arrests comes the exact same day the Los Angeles Metropolis Council gave its closing approval to a proposed ordinance that might create a Metallic and Wire Theft Reward program to struggle rampant copper wire theft within the metropolis.
The 2 suspects had been recognized as 53-year-old Concepcion Vasquez and 51-year-old Jose Garcia Avila. Each males had been booked into the LAPD’s Van Nuys Jail on suspicion of grand theft.
Officers from the Los Angeles Police Division’s Mission Station had been alerted round 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to a “grand theft in progress” within the 15000 block of Germain Road, close to San Jose Elementary College simply west of Woodman Avenue.
“The individual reporting noticed a number of suspects reducing copper wire from {an electrical} pole and known as the police,” in keeping with an LAPD assertion. “Upon arrival, the officers noticed 4 suspects on the location with massive items of copper wire and metallic reducing instruments on the bottom.”
Three of the 4 suspects ignored instructions to give up and fled on foot, with certainly one of them shortly caught and a second situated as backup arrived, police stated.
The investigation into the theft continues and extra arrests are anticipated, in keeping with the LAPD. Anybody with details about the case was urged to name Mission Station detectives at 818-838-9810.
The tipster who known as police thwarting Tuesday’s theft will be the very kind of involved citizen metropolis officers hope the brand new ordinance will encourage and reward.
In an 11-2 vote, council members permitted the ordinance, which now heads to Mayor Karen Bass for her consideration. The ordinance goals to supply rewards for info involving theft of metropolis plaques, tombstones, statues, gentle requirements, and copper wire, and theft of metals linked to the Sixth Road Bridge, which has gone darkish.
The town would provide a $5,000 reward for felony grand theft, and $1,000 for misdemeanor theft.
“Copper wire and different metallic theft is not fairly — it is organized crime that darkens our streets, cuts the web to houses and faculties, and robs us of our historical past once they steal statues and historic markers,” Park stated in a earlier assertion. “Our citywide reward program takes these thieves head-on so we are able to maintain lights on, youngsters linked and taxpayers protected,” she added.
In 2024, on account of brazen copper wire theft on the Sixth Road Bridge, elected officers and the Los Angeles Police Division created the Heavy Metallic Process Power to crack down on metallic theft within the downtown areas, and later in some neighborhoods within the San Fernando Valley.
In response to a report from the Metropolis Legal professional’s Workplace, the LAPD believes that the adoption of the reward program will help within the identification, apprehension and conviction, or closing adjudication, of individuals who commit acts of metallic and wire theft.
