By Dale M. King
BOCA RATON – Boca Raton police have arrested a man and woman from Fort Lauderdale in connection with a series of recent house breaks in Boca Raton, police said.
The suspects were taken into custody following the investigation of a break into a home on NW 27th Street Feb. 1, said Public Information Officer Sandra Boonenberg.
She said Pedro Eduardo Dos Santos, 24, was charged with multiple counts of burglary to a residence, grand theft, petty theft, criminal mischief and possession of burglary tools. Boca Raton detectives said they believe he is responsible for more than 25 residential burglaries in Boca Raton.
Dos Santos was arrested in December of 2009 on similar charges, police said.
Also arrested was Tiffany Erickson, 22, on a traffic warrant and multiple counts of being an accessory after the fact.
Boonenberg said the investigation is ongoing and there may be further charges filed against both individuals.
Police responded at 1:35 p.m. Feb. 1 to a residential alarm on NW 27th Street, police said. The first officer on the scene saw that a front window was smashed out.
While waiting for backup, Boonenberg said, he saw a black Ford F-150 pick-up truck parked in front of a nearby residence and a male carrying a backpack get into the driver’s side of the vehicle.
Several days earlier, she said, there were three similar residential burglaries. During two of them, a black pick-up was seen.
The vehicle left but was spotted on St. Andrews Boulevard and stopped by police. The driver, identified as Dos Santos, told officers his driver’s license was currently suspended. Officers arrested Dos Santos for the traffic offense.
Police also found a pillowcase that contained jewelry and a backpack that also contained jewelry and burglary tools, inside the truck, which is registered to Erickson. The property was identified as belonging to several different Boca Raton victims, said the police report.
The Boca Raton Police Special Investigations Unit (SIU) conducted surveillance on Erickson’s home in Broward County. Detectives said they saw her Erickson place garbage bags in her neighbor’s trash cans. Police said those bags were recovered and contained several items, including jewelry stolen in residential burglaries.
After obtaining a search warrant for the house, police found several more items of jewelry.
All of the recovered property was displayed for victims at the Boca Raton police station. So far, Boonenberg said, two-thirds of the items have been identified and returned to the owners.
Anyone with information about these incidents or similar crimes are asked to call Detective Ronald Mello at (561) 620-6186 or Palm Beach County Crime Stoppers at (800) 458-TIPS.