Rialto police arrested two people Thursday in connection with a months-long string of storage unit burglaries spanning San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles County.
A search warrant carried out by police at an “Extra Storage” in San Bernardino uncovered over $100,000 worth of stolen medical supplies, collectibles and power tools inside a storage unit.
The pair would steal from various storage unit locations and use their own units, at the same location, to store the stolen goods, according to police.
“So far what we’ve discovered in this one storage is over a hundred thousand dollars worth of property,” said Sergeant David Padilla with Rialto police.
A second search warrant was carried out a home in Fontana that led to the arrests of both the suspected storage unit thieves. Police suspect Eric Navarrete and Kassandra Arteaga of burglarizing at least two dozen storage units in throughout multiple counties.
“I didn’t know they can find my stuff back because it’s–it’s a like high value all the dental life dental stuff it’s a kind of very small but it’s high value,” said Xiang Yan whose storage unit was targeted.
Yan rushed to the San Bernardino location as soon as Rialto police informed him they recovered some of his valuables. Yan had reported two months ago over $30,000 in dental supplies were stolen from his storage unit at an “Extra Storage Space” location in Rialto.
“I was not expecting it to come back. I was not–because I went to the police officers at the police department, they asked me to wait but for a long time there was no answer,” said Yan.
Multiple suspected victims were contacted by Rialto police to identify some of the items that were recovered from the burglar’s units.
“It looked like they emptied a store. Obviously I instantly recognized a lot of stuff from my unit. I still have a lot of stuff that’s unaccounted for at the moment, but a vast majority of it is, I could see right away it was my stuff,” said Christopher Smith.
The investigation had been going on for weeks after the storage unit facilities provided valuable tips and surveillance images that linked a car to the thefts, police said.
Rialto Police tell NBC4 that they have been able to return over $64,000 worth of stolen goods to their rightful owners and urge anyone who may have had items stolen from their storage units to contact them immediately.
