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Riverside police display recovered firearms, ammunition, cash and tools commonly used to commit burglaries from the residence of a burglary suspect arrested June 13. | Photo courtesy of the Riverside Police Department
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Investigators have arrested two suspects who allegedly committed burglaries of more than two dozen businesses throughout Southern California, Riverside police announced Thursday.
On June 9 Riverside resident Dache Kelly, 23, was arrested for an alleged related burglary by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and booked into jail, police said. Riverside Police Department detectives later added additional charges for commercial burglary, grand theft and conspiracy. Kelly is currently being held on $120,000 bail.
On June 13, Riverside police detectives obtained a search warrant and with assistance from the department’s Post Release Accountability and Compliance Team served it at a home in San Bernardino where the second suspect had been residing and arrested 42-year-old Lehman Mitchell, police said.
“Investigators found three handguns, two of which were stolen, a short-barreled and unserialized rifle, ammunition, money, and tools commonly used to commit burglaries,” Riverside police spokesman Officer Ryan Railsback said in a statement.
“(Mitchell) was later booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on multiple counts of commercial burglary, several weapons charges including being an ex-felon, and committing a crime while out on bail or release,” Railsback said. “He is being held on $220,000 bail.”
In late January detectives assigned to the Riverside Police Department’s Property Crimes Unit started to notice a trend of commercial burglaries involving jukeboxes being broken into while the business was closed, according to Railsback. The burglarized businesses “included restaurants, bars, a local golf course lounge and eventually veterinary hospitals. During the investigation, (investigators) learned the suspects were also breaking into businesses in other cities and jurisdictions.”
Over the next several months, police learned the identities of two possible suspects, Railsback said. Because these types of property crimes tend to occur throughout multiple jurisdictions, Riverside police shared the suspect information with neighboring law enforcement agencies to see if any similar break-ins were being investigated that had not already been reported.
“With the help from search warrants and other investigative methods, detectives believed these two suspects were responsible for approximately 28 burglaries occurring in Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Diego counties,” Railsback said.
“We have seen a significant increase in burglaries to our local businesses here in Riverside just this year,” Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez said in a statement. “Our hope is for our state legislators to amend current laws that will better hold these criminals accountable for damage and losses they are causing to our business owners. But in the meantime, our detectives will keep working feverishly to protect Riverside.”
Anyone with information relevant to this investigation and arrests should contact Detective Vanessa Castillo at 951-826-5376 or VCCastillo@RiversideCA.gov.
Anonymous tips are welcomed via email, RPDTips@RiversideCA.gov, or the Riverside Police Department’s Atlas 1 mobile app utilizing the “Send a Message” feature. The iOS app is available at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atlas-1/id1509528933, and the Android Atlas 1 App is here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.atlasone.
