Simi Valley Police Department – Incident Press Release
On April 10, 2019, the Simi Valley Police Departments Property Crimes Unit along with members of the Ventura County Auto Theft Taskforce and the California Highway Patrol’s Air Division conducted a joint operation related to numerous burglaries that occurred in Ventura and Los Angeles County. During this investigation, a 2019 Ford Escape SUV license number 8HOK667 was identified as a suspect vehicle. During an extensive surveillance operation, three suspects in the above mentioned vehicle were observed committing several vehicle burglaries, mainly in secluded areas such as hiking trail heads.
The suspect vehicle was stopped and three subjects were arrested for Burglary and Conspiracy. The suspects were identified as Jonathan Garay (29 yrs), Eduardo Queralto (22 yrs), and Kevin Castillo (22 yrs). All three suspects were temporarily in the United States on Visa’s from Chile.
During several of their crimes, the suspects utilized an electronic jamming device which interrupted the signal from the victim’s remote key fob preventing the car from being locked by remote. Often the victim would press the lock button on their car remote and walk away from the vehicle believing it was locked. The jamming device prevented the car from locking and provided easy access for the suspects to the vehicles contents.
In an effort to not fall victim to this tactic, when locking your car via a remote, make sure that the lights flash on the car and if applicable, the horn sounds confirming that it is locked. Then physically check the door handle to confirm it is locked. During all of the above mentioned crimes, the victim’s vehicle lights did not flash nor did the horn sound when the jamming device was being utilized.
If you have any information related to this suspect vehicle or the suspects themselves, please contact Detective Steve Collett at (805) 583-6968.
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