Deputies Crack Alleged Theft Ring

SANTA CLARITA —  With nine arrests this week and several more suspects named, Santa Clarita sheriff’s deputies say they have broken up a network of burglars responsible for dozens of residential thefts during the last three years.

But this is not your typical crime syndicate.

The alleged burglars are all students at Saugus High School.

“So far, these are kids who all fit into the skateboarder mold,” said Det. Dennis Blackstock, of the Santa Clarita sheriff’s station’s COBRA unit, which is responsible for juvenile and gang crime.

“I wouldn’t really call it a ring--they aren’t that sophisticated--but they are all friends and they knew about each other’s thefts.”

Sheriff’s investigators said 13 of the 14 youths implicated in the thefts have admitted stealing guns, electronic items, jewelry and car parts from their Saugus neighbors for their own use and, in some cases, to sell for cash to buy marijuana and other drugs. The remaining suspect has not yet been questioned.

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Blackstock said the investigation has mushroomed during the last few weeks after an initial interview with one suspect led to information implicating several others.

As many as 20 youths could face felony charges--including burglary, grand theft, possession of a firearm and receiving stolen property--before the investigation is finished, Blackstock said. All of those charged so far are 16 and 17 years old.

Although some of the crimes were allegedly committed as far away as San Diego, detectives said most of the burglaries took place in a middle-class neighborhood of hilly streets and cul-de-sacs near Saugus High School between June 1996 and August of this year.

One suspect, who investigators characterized as the informal leader of the group, encouraged his friends to prowl their neighborhoods opening unlocked doors and garages and sneaking through windows in search of valuables, which he then helped them to sell, authorities said.

That suspect--who, like the others, was not identified because of his age--kept some of the stolen merchandise in his bedroom in the family’s Saugus home, detectives said.

Deputies recovered numerous items at the home, including a cellular phone and weightlifting equipment that was believed to have been stolen from Saugus High School. Other suspects voluntarily surrendered stolen property ranging from video games and CD players to a pair of headlights from a 1965 Ford Mustang.

“Everyone that we’ve talked to has been cooperating with the investigation,” Blackstock said. “There are varied motives, but they all just seem to have got caught up in it. Maybe to be one of the guys.”

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The nine teenagers arrested in the case have been released to their parents, officials said.

Santa Clarita city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz said the arrests should serve as a wake-up call to parents who don’t know how their children spend their time.

Despite being ranked by the FBI as the fourth safest city in America in 1997, Ortiz said, Santa Clarita has a large number of latch-key kids who remain unsupervised much of the time.

“Really, it’s not a surprise if you look at the numbers on youth crime,” Ortiz said. “But it is shocking to think that in one of the safest cities in the Unites States, and one of the richest cities in the county, that we have 15 kids at one school involved in something like this.”