Cross-county criminals travel to loot South Florida homes - Sun-Sentinel
Burglars and robbers want to know if your town is hot. They'll come from far and wide to loot homes until someone gets caught.
A large number of the bad guys arrested in Broward and Palm Beach counties travel from as far as Florida's west coast to prey on their residents, police said. They look for affluent neighborhoods where they can get in and out fast. Cities along the Interstate 95 and Interstate 75 corridors often are targeted for easy access.
"They look for new territory," Delray Beach police Sgt. Russ Mager said. "They tell each other, 'This one's hot. This one's not.'"
Boca Raton got hot last week. Police there busted seven people from Broward and Miami-Dade in connection with a robbery and two burglaries in upscale subdivisions. More than half the people arrested in Boca Raton are from another town, Police Chief Dan Alexander said.
"Criminals have expanded their horizons," he said. "They'll rent a vehicle, travel up here and turn the vehicle back in."
It can be extra challenging to identify thieves who live elsewhere, Alexander said, and it requires working closely with other agencies.
On Thursday, Boca Raton detectives tracked down an SUV in Miami that reportedly was involved in the armed robbery of a lawn-care worker in the 800 block of Enfield Street earlier that day. The landscaper identified one of the men, and Miami-Dade police arrested him.
That same week, Boca Raton police arrested four men and two women from Broward who allegedly burglarized homes in the Boca Madera and Colonnade subdivisions. Criminals share information with each other about their targets, Alexander said, usually homes that are likely to have expensive jewelry and electronics.
A highly organized burglary ring from Miami was living large from its loot from South Florida homes until its arrest in June 2010. Months later, six members of the "Dinner Set" crew were convicted of racketeering and other charges for stealing more than $10 million in jewelry from about 56 homes.
The group drove to Palm Beach County and other areas for evening heists, when they knew couples would be out. In Boca Raton, homes in Woodfield Country Club, Broken Sound and The Seasons were broken into. West of Delray Beach, homes were targeted in The Oaks, Addison Reserve and Mizner Country Club.
Suburban communities in western Broward also tend to attract thieves, police said, partly because they're so close to Interstate 75 and the Sawgrass Expressway.
"It's a very easy access point to enter the city, and it's an easy exit point," Sunrise police Sgt. Rodney Hailey said. In addition to criminals arriving from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, "we've even had criminals come from Collier County, traveling across Alligator Alley."
Coral Springs police have been finding more burglars relying on rental cars for crime, according to spokesman Lt. Joe McHugh. Two burglary suspects, recently arrested, were using a car that was rented in the Fort Lauderdale area.
Communities to the east are targeted, partly because U.S. 1, Interstate 95 or Florida's Turnpike are nearby. All three thoroughfares are within or near Dania Beach, so "we do get a lot of transient criminals," said Detective Carlos R. Salazar, with the Broward sheriff's criminal investigations division.
Whenever traveling criminals are arrested, it's often because a neighbor phoned 911 to report suspicious activity, officials say. That's what happened last month, when two men were arrested on charges they burglarized at least a dozen homes in Dania Beach, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.
A neighbor heard something suspicious and called 911, leading deputies to arrest Albert Fischer, 27, who lives in Miami-Dade, and Ramon Caraballo, 42, whose last address was unknown. The pair had tried to escape by driving north on Interstate 95, a half-mile west of the targeted homes, Salazar said.
One Dania Beach burglar even came in by train, Salazar said.
In late July, deputies arrested a man whom they say was stealing metal from Dania Beach businesses after commuting on Tri-Rail from his Delray Beach hotel. He had brought a bicycle with him, so that when he got off the train, he could ride around the city looking for targets, Salazar said.
After a theft, Demancos Bias, 30, had a friend meet him in Dania Beach with a pickup. They'd load their loot and escape, he said. Bias was held on burglary and theft charges, jail records show.
John Koutsoupis, a victim of one of last week's burglaries in Boca Raton, said the recent arrests may send a strong message to the suspects' cohorts.
"Once word gets back, that should stop the feeding frenzy," he said.
Neighbors who report suspicious activity "aren't wasting our time," added McHugh, the Coral Springs police spokesman. "Let us investigate it and determine the validity of it. We would rather have people call 500 times a day than never get a call at all."
apcampbell@tribune.com or 561-243-6609.
21 Sep, 2011--
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