Surveillance footage from a burglary on 2nd Street Friday night showed a suspected burglar who was apprehended Saturday night following an attempted burglary on Gates Avenue. Courtesy MBPD
The Manhattan Beach Police Department arrested two men on burglary charges late Saturday night and is seeking other burglary victims who may have captured the suspects on video surveillance footage from previous break-ins.
On Saturday, at approximately 8:45 p.m., the officers responded to a 911 call of a residential burglary in progress in the 1600 block of Gates Avenue. According to police reports, when a local man returned to his residence, he observed a man run from his backyard. Officers searched the area and quickly located two suspects in nearby Redondo Beach, just east of Aviation Boulevard. Arrested were Sergio Martin Ortega, 23, and Jonathon Antonio Lopez- Mejia, 23, both from Los Angeles.
Police found both men in possession of burglary tools. Both were booked at the Manhattan Beach Police jail for residential burglary and possession of burglary tools. There was no loss at the victim’s residence.
After the arrest, police were able to tie Ortega to a burglary that had occurred the night before at a residence on the 1600 block of 2nd Street. No suspects had been arrested in that burglary but one was captured on video surveillance camera; police determined that suspect was Ortega.
MBPD Sgt. Tim Zinns said Ortega employed a common strategy — to ring a residence’s doorbell to determine nobody’s home before breaking in. But that strategy also engages surveillance cameras in many home security systems.
“You can see it on the video from that ring-doorbell system,” Zinns said. “He was ringing the doorbell and saw what appeared to be a camera, so he’s trying to cover it up with his finger.”
MBPD is asking if any other victims of burglary may be able to identify Ortega from their video footage. If so, call Detective Taylor Klosowski at (310) 802-5126. Video from the 2nd Street burglary can be seen at
http://www.citymb.info/city-officials/police-department/news-and-bulletins. ER
