Storage facility burglars busted in Santa Cruz County
UPDATE: 1/18/2018 5:21 p.m. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office reunited more than $40,000 worth of stolen property with its righful owner.
On Wednesday, Sheriff’s detectives were able to identify the owner of the floor cleaning equipment they recovered in early January.
“The business, Moon Stars Janitorial Service, had the cleaning equipment secured inside a storage locker when it was stolen,” said Sheriff’s Office.
UPDATE: 1/8/2018 3:25 p.m. Two suspects accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of items from storage facilities in Santa Cruz County are in custody.
Last week, deputies with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office found a stolen box van with high end commercial flooring equipment and other items believed to be stolen. The property was estimated to be worth more than $10,000.
Following up on the case, detectives checked out a storage facility in the 3700 block of Soquel Drive and found suspect, Stephen Kennedy.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said, “Stephen was in the process of wheeling out a cart full of stolen property that he had just taken from another victim’s storage unit.”
Suspect, Mckelle Lloyd was also with Kennedy, and had keys to the stolen box van.
Detectives were able to watch surveillance video and saw Kennedy and Lloyd loading the stolen property into the box van the day before.
Both suspects were arrested for burglary and other theft charges. The two were booked into Santa Cruz County Jail.
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Deputies in Santa Cruz County came across a stolen box van with several suspected stolen items inside late Thursday night.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, deputies were doing a business security check when they found the stolen property they estimate to be worth more than $10,000.
Sgt Brian Cleveland with the Sheriff’s Office says ” here were several items which were industrial floor items, like a buffer, a stripper, there was also a kids quad as well as a bicycle that had a chain and a lock still on there. So some of these items are valued at several thousand dollars.”
Detectives say one of the tools alone could be worth $10,000 which makes getting it back to the owner a top priority. “If these are the tools they rely on to do their job, and now they’re missing, I mean that’s loss of income. Potentially loss of a job, a lot of people may not have $10,000 at hand to be able to purchase another one. So this is a big deal and getting it back to the owners is something that we take pride in.”
The also found surfboards, pottery and go-carts inside the stolen van.
The van was located by a patrol Sergeant in the Marshalls parking lot off of Commercial Way in Santa Cruz. Deputies have stepped up patrol in the area after seeing a spike in criminal activity. “We’ve seen things vary from theft from Toys R Us to drug possession and other crimes in that general vicinity,” says Cleveland.
Sheriffs say they have had a difficult time in the past returning stolen tools to their owners. They’re asking anyone with valuable tools to register them online with a serial number or carve your drivers license number or address into the tools.
Sgt. Cleveland says they are following some leads and “our detectives are currently doing some follow up right now to try and potentially get some of that property back to the victims.” If anyone recognizes the items as their own, please contact the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office at 831-454-7600 and reference case number 18-00117.
