LOCAL : Valencia Student Held in Thefts

A CalArts student who was wanted for breaking into a safe in Michigan was arrested in his dormitory room on the Valencia campus, where investigators found property from five Simi Valley burglaries, authorities said this morning.

Stuart Wesley Hicks, 21, was arrested Thursday night and was being held without bail because of a fugitive warrant charging him with safecracking and embezzlement in Charlotte, Mich., officials said.

Hicks was arrested by members of an anti-burglary team of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies based in the Santa Clarita Valley. The deputies found Hicks with an assist from Simi Valley police, who were investigating a series of commercial burglaries.

Simi Valley Police Detective Christopher Ward said Hicks is believed to have been involved in numerous burglaries in Los Angeles and Simi Valley. He said he will ask the Ventura County district attorney to file five burglary charges against Hicks stemming from break-ins at four restaurants and one motel in which about $9,000 in cash and property was taken. Property from those burglaries was found in Hicks’ dorm room, Ward said.