Behind the Badge
Garden Grove Police said Monday they recovered a car and personal possessions, including priceless family photos and other heirlooms, stolen from a Cypress family that was in the process of moving to Washington state.
Three men were arrested late Sunday morning in connection with the crime, according to a news release from the Garden Grove PD.
Garden Grove Police officers were dispatched to a storage facility at 11284 Westminster Ave. at 11:33 a.m. April 19 regarding a located stolen vehicle.
The vehicle was a U-Haul truck and a trailer carrying a Toyota van. Both vehicles had been stolen the day before from the Hyatt House Cypress Anaheim in Cypress.
Officers were in the process of setting up a perimeter around the storage facility when two of the suspects walked into view, according to the news release.
Those suspects were detained.
A third suspect ran into a housing tract south of the storage lot and a perimeter was set up, according to the news release.
An air unit was requested, and a helicopter from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department responded.
The third suspect was located a couple of blocks away in the bushes of a yard on Progresso Street in Santa Ana. He was taken into custody without incident.
Officers located two other trucks full of property at the storage facility that had been stolen from the victims in Cypress. Personal possessions from their home — a total value of around $50,000 — were inside the stolen U-Haul and the two trucks, police said.
Detectives conducted extensive follow-up investigations that led them to residences in Garden Grove and Santa Ana. At these locations, they located additional property that belonged to the victims.
The suspects — Pedro Perea, 36, of Garden Grove; David Perez, 35, of Santa Ana; and Sergio Flores, 24, of Garden Grove — are being held at Orange County Jail on suspicion on possession of stolen vehicle parts, grand theft property and vehicle theft.
