A convicted bank robber — who also once stole the identity of one of the world’s richest men in order to pocket his $1.4-million tax refund — now awaits sentencing for a different kind of fraud scheme, one that targeted Southern California surfers.
Moundir Kamil, 56, was the mastermind behind a nearly $1-million scheme that targeted surfers while they were catching waves, according to federal prosecutors.
Orange County resident Kamil, along with accomplices Jordan Adams and Jennifer Pruneda, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, attempted bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. Sentencing for Kamil is expected to take place Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles.
According to court documents and media reports, Kamil and his co-conspirators burglarized vehicles to steal credit cards, debit cards, phones and other forms of identification to later make fraudulent purchases, including luxury items and expensive electronics, totaling at least $850,000.
The larceny took place across various Southern California beaches including Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Manhattan Beach, as well as beaches in San Diego County and other popular surfing spots, from April 2021 through December 2022.
In one case reported by a Newport Beach surfer, he discovered that someone had taken his keys from his beachside apartment and used them to steal his wallet and phone from his car while he surfed. The thief was later identified and alleged to be part of an organized crime ring led by Kamil.
The scheme also involved lookouts who would watch where surfers would stash their keys before they hit the waves; then a partner in crime would grab the key and break into the car, taking phones and wallets. Kamil was able to hack facial recognition software on phones to get into the victims’ apps, prosecutors said. The thieves would then empty out bank and other accounts.
When credit card companies would call to check on fraudulent activity, the thieves would answer the phone and approve the charges, documents show.
Kamil is no stranger to money schemes.
In 2011, he pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud for stealing a nearly $1.4-million tax refund check from billionaire Donald Bren, a real estate mogul and Irvine Co. chairman.
A federal judge ordered Kamil to pay $1.1 million in restitution. He was also sentenced to 99 days in jail and three years’ probation, which included seeking mental health treatments for a gambling addiction.
Back in 2003, he was convicted of robbing six banks across Orange County, for which he was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and dubbed the “Give Me More Bandit,” due to his demands for extra cash from tellers.
A family on Long Island, New York, is crediting their 12-year-old with saving the day.They say he did all the right things when someone broke into their house. 12-year-old Tristen Taylor of Medford was home alone in his bedroom midday Tuesday when he heard the kitchen window break and footsteps inside the house.A stranger was walking from room to room.”I said, I have to get out the house,” Tristen said. It may sound like the Christmas classic “Home Alone,” but unlike the holiday movie, there were no traps or pranks — just quick thinking, a fast police response and a child who did all the right things.After getting away through a ground-floor window, he called 911. As the man rummaged through the house, Tristen hid behind the garage.”I was on the phone with them, waiting for them to get here,” he said.Suffolk County police arrived in less than three minutes, catching the thief red-handed.”He is our little hero,” said Timothea Taylor, Tristen’s grandmother.”We were very proud that he was able to keep his composure and call the police as quickly as he did. Basically, without even thinking about it, he automatically called 911.”Tristen’s family credits movies he’s seen, plus his good instincts.To his neighbors, he’s also a hero for stopping a brazen burglar.Mike Campanella, a neighbor, said, “I would hope my son would have done the same thing, when someone is breaking into the house — caution is to get out and then call the police.””You just have to be brave and call them,” Tristen said. The suspect now faces burglary charges.He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.
LONG ISLAND, N.Y. —
A family on Long Island, New York, is crediting their 12-year-old with saving the day.
They say he did all the right things when someone broke into their house.
12-year-old Tristen Taylor of Medford was home alone in his bedroom midday Tuesday when he heard the kitchen window break and footsteps inside the house.
A stranger was walking from room to room.
“I said, I have to get out the house,” Tristen said.
It may sound like the Christmas classic “Home Alone,” but unlike the holiday movie, there were no traps or pranks — just quick thinking, a fast police response and a child who did all the right things.
After getting away through a ground-floor window, he called 911. As the man rummaged through the house, Tristen hid behind the garage.
“I was on the phone with them, waiting for them to get here,” he said.
Suffolk County police arrived in less than three minutes, catching the thief red-handed.
“He is our little hero,” said Timothea Taylor, Tristen’s grandmother.
“We were very proud that he was able to keep his composure and call the police as quickly as he did. Basically, without even thinking about it, he automatically called 911.”
Tristen’s family credits movies he’s seen, plus his good instincts.
To his neighbors, he’s also a hero for stopping a brazen burglar.
Mike Campanella, a neighbor, said, “I would hope my son would have done the same thing, when someone is breaking into the house — caution is to get out and then call the police.”
“You just have to be brave and call them,” Tristen said.
The suspect now faces burglary charges.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.
A family on Long Island, New York, is crediting their 12-year-old with saving the day.They say he did all the right things when someone broke into their house. 12-year-old Tristen Taylor of Medford was home alone in his bedroom midday Tuesday when he heard the kitchen window break and footsteps inside the house.A stranger was walking from room to room.”I said, I have to get out the house,” Tristen said. It may sound like the Christmas classic “Home Alone,” but unlike the holiday movie, there were no traps or pranks — just quick thinking, a fast police response and a child who did all the right things.After getting away through a ground-floor window, he called 911. As the man rummaged through the house, Tristen hid behind the garage.”I was on the phone with them, waiting for them to get here,” he said.Suffolk County police arrived in less than three minutes, catching the thief red-handed.”He is our little hero,” said Timothea Taylor, Tristen’s grandmother.”We were very proud that he was able to keep his composure and call the police as quickly as he did. Basically, without even thinking about it, he automatically called 911.”Tristen’s family credits movies he’s seen, plus his good instincts.To his neighbors, he’s also a hero for stopping a brazen burglar.Mike Campanella, a neighbor, said, “I would hope my son would have done the same thing, when someone is breaking into the house — caution is to get out and then call the police.””You just have to be brave and call them,” Tristen said. The suspect now faces burglary charges.He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.
LONG ISLAND, N.Y. —
A family on Long Island, New York, is crediting their 12-year-old with saving the day.
They say he did all the right things when someone broke into their house.
12-year-old Tristen Taylor of Medford was home alone in his bedroom midday Tuesday when he heard the kitchen window break and footsteps inside the house.
A stranger was walking from room to room.
“I said, I have to get out the house,” Tristen said.
It may sound like the Christmas classic “Home Alone,” but unlike the holiday movie, there were no traps or pranks — just quick thinking, a fast police response and a child who did all the right things.
After getting away through a ground-floor window, he called 911. As the man rummaged through the house, Tristen hid behind the garage.
“I was on the phone with them, waiting for them to get here,” he said.
Suffolk County police arrived in less than three minutes, catching the thief red-handed.
“He is our little hero,” said Timothea Taylor, Tristen’s grandmother.
“We were very proud that he was able to keep his composure and call the police as quickly as he did. Basically, without even thinking about it, he automatically called 911.”
Tristen’s family credits movies he’s seen, plus his good instincts.
To his neighbors, he’s also a hero for stopping a brazen burglar.
Mike Campanella, a neighbor, said, “I would hope my son would have done the same thing, when someone is breaking into the house — caution is to get out and then call the police.”
“You just have to be brave and call them,” Tristen said.
The suspect now faces burglary charges.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.
A thief or crew of thieves recently carried out one of the largest art heists in California history, breaking into a storage facility for the Oakland Museum of California under the cover of darkness and making off with more than 1,000 precious artifacts.
(Oakland Museum of California / Oakland Police Department)
Items stolen from the Oakland museum included Native American baskets, jewelry, laptops, daguerreotype photographs and intricately carved ivory tusks.
The Oakland Police Department is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Art Crime Team to investigate the heist and retrieve the missing items.
“It was devastating. It feels like a real violation. It feels like somebody entering your home,” said museum Chief Executive Lori Fogarty.
Fogarty said staff were not working at the off-site storage facility the day of the burglary and discovered it the following morning, Oct. 16.
“Our job is to preserve and take care of and steward the cultural, artistic and natural heritage of California,” she said. “So it feels like not just a loss to me and to the collection staff, we also feel like it’s a loss to the public.”
The Oakland Museum of California features more than 110,000 square feet of gallery space and 2 million objects dedicated to telling the story of the Golden State.
(Oakland Museum of California / Oakland Police Department)
Retired Los Angeles Police Capt. John Romero, who led the department’s commercial crimes unit, said that if the break-in was completed without setting off alarms or alerting security, it’s possible that the person or people behind it had some internal knowledge, he said. The fact that the heist took place at an off-site storage unit also suggests that the suspect or suspects had access to privileged information, he said.
“If it’s a nondescript, all-brick building that’s very difficult for anybody to figure out [what it is] from the outside, it is almost always an employee, a former employee, a contractor or a vendor who sees it, and talks about it and gets approached to bring something out,” he said.
This is not the first time that items belonging to the museum have been stolen. In 2014, Andre Taray Franklin, a 46-year-old parolee, was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing and reselling a 19th century gold jewelry box from the museum. He was also a suspect in a 2012 break-in at the museum in which gold nuggets and Gold Rush-era pistols were taken but was not charged in that incident.
“Lightning has struck twice in my career,” said Fogarty, referencing the break-ins connected to Franklin and the recent heist.
“He [Franklin] was caught, identified and convicted … and we retrieved the most important and valuable works,” she continued. “So I am going to believe deeply that these items are going to find their way back to the museum.”
Given that the break-in took place two weeks ago, there is a good chance that many of the items have been sold, Romero said. Cultural-artifact thieves typically try to offload their loot before word gets out that the items are stolen.
“These people are interested in fast cash, not the full appraisal value,” he said. “They need to get rid of it quickly.”
Romero anticipates detectives will be looking closely at platforms such as Craigslist and Ebay, as well as groups that collect antiques or historic items, as they attempt to locate the Oakland museum’s stolen goods and identify those responsible.
Well-known stolen cultural items are difficult to resell due to the odds of running into undercover agents and buyers’ reluctance to purchase an item that may later be seized by authorities, Romero said.
Targeting a high number of lesser-known artifacts may make it easier to resell the loot, he said.
Romero said this month’s break-in represents one of the largest museum heists he’s heard of in California in terms of the number of items taken.
Former famous museum heists include a 2012 raid on the California Mining & Minerals Museum in Mariposa where thieves took an estimated $2 million worth of gold and gems, as well as a 1978 break-in at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco where four paintings, including a Rembrant, were pilfered.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Oakland police at (510) 238-3951 or submit a tip to the Art Crime Team online or by calling (800) 225-5324.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón will announce criminal charges Monday in the slaying of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor, who was killed in May by men suspected of trying to steal the catalytic converter from his car.
Los Angeles Police Department Interim Chief Dominic Choi will also be on hand at the press conference scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Hall of Justice downtown, according to a news release from the L.A. County district attorney’s office issued Sunday.
Four men were arrested in connection to the killing, LAPD announced last week. Law enforcement sources told The Times the investigation had focused on Florencia 13 gang members tied to catalytic converter thefts in the region.
After reviewing videos and interviewing witnesses, LAPD homicide detectives identified three men, one with distinctive facial tattoos, who they say jacked up Wactor’s car on Hope Street near Pico Boulevard in order to steal its catalytic converter on the morning of May 25. Wactor was shot when he confronted the men.
Robert Barceleau, Leonel Gutierrez and Sergio Estrada were booked on suspicion of murder Thursday and held in lieu of $2-million bail, according to L.A. County Sheriff’s Department records. An additional person, Frank Olano, 22, was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to murder.
Wactor had just finished a late night bartending shift at the nearby Level 8 bar about 3:20 a.m when he and co-worker Anita Joy were walking to his car and interrupted the thieves.
Wactor first thought his car was being towed, Joy said. After realizing that wasn’t the case, he asked the men to leave, showing his open hands to indicate he wasn’t a threat. Nevertheless, he was shot at close range, Joy said. A security guard from the bar said he found Joy and the mortally wounded Wactor and called 911.
After the shooting, the suspects fled north on Hope Street in a stolen getaway car described as a 2018 black four-door Infiniti Q50 with a tan interior, police said.
Thieves target catalytic converters because they contain precious metals, including rhodium, palladium and platinum. They can sell for hundreds of dollars to auto parts suppliers or scrapyards, where they can be melted down and the valuable metals extracted.
Thefts of catalytic converters skyrocketed in California during the COVID-19 pandemic. That prompted new state laws that make it illegal for recyclers to buy the parts from anyone other than the vehicle’s legal owner or a licensed dealer. Penalties were increased for buyers who fail to certify that a catalytic converter wasn’t stolen.
Los Angeles police are serving search warrants, seeking to make arrests in the slaying of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor, law enforcement sources said Thursday.
A statement of probable cause used to obtain the warrants named Robert Barceleau, Sergio Estrada and Leonel Gutierrez as suspects. The three were targeted after police said their fingerprints matched those lifted from a floor jack they used while trying to steal Wactor’s catalytic converter.
After reviewing videos and interviewing witnesses, homicide detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department identified three men, one with distinctive facial tattoos, who they say jacked Wactor’s car on Hope Street near Pico Boulevard to steal its catalytic converter before shooting and killing him May 25.
A statement of probable cause used to obtain the warrants named Robert Barceleau, Sergio Estrada and Leonel Gutierrez as suspects. The three were targeted after police said their fingerprints matched those lifted from a floor jack they used while trying to steal Wactor’s catalytic converter.
Wactor had finished a shift at the nearby Level 8 bar about 3:20 a.m. when he and co-worker Anita Joy were walking to his car and interrupted the thieves.
Wactor first thought his car was being towed, Joy said. After realizing that wasn’t the case, he asked the men to leave, showing his open hands to indicate he wasn’t a threat. Nevertheless, he was shot at close range, Joy said. A security guard from the bar said he found Joy and the mortally wounded Wactor and called 911.
Joy asked Wactor whether he was OK, and he responded, “Nope. I’ve been shot,” according to the statement of probable cause.
After the shooting, the suspects fled north on Hope Street in a stolen getaway car described as a 2018 black four-door Infiniti Q50 with a tan interior, police said.
Thieves target catalytic converters because they contain precious metals, including rhodium, palladium and platinum. They can sell for hundreds of dollars to auto parts suppliers or scrapyards, where they can be melted down and the valuable metals extracted.
Thefts of catalytic converters skyrocketed in California during the COVID-19 pandemic. That prompted new state laws that make it illegal for recyclers to buy the parts from anyone other than the vehicle’s legal owner or a licensed dealer. Penalties were increased for buyers who fail to certify that a catalytic converter wasn’t stolen.
A massive gold nugget was reported stolen Thursday from the Long Beach Convention Center, spurring an offer of a $10,000 reward.
Bob Campbell, the owner of a coin shop in Salt Lake City, said he brought the gold nugget to the Long Beach Expo — a show that gathers sellers of coins and other collectibles — to sell for more than $80,000. He said its value exceeds its sheer content in gold, as an “original 49er nugget” believed to date back to the Gold Rush.
“They will lose money if they melt it. It has collector value,” Campbell said. The roughly 27-ounce nugget was about the size of a goose egg, he added, and specimens of that size are “exceedingly rare.”
Video captured by another coin dealer at the event shows someone appearing to press on the display case, then pocket something. Campbell faulted a defect in the case that allowed the thief to wiggle his hand inside.
Long Beach police said they are investing the theft, which was reported before noon Thursday. Campbell is also passing out fliers with a photo of the gold nugget and the alleged thief and personally offering a $10,000 reward hinging on the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.
“We’re hoping that this information gets out” and maybe “one of his friends will rat him out,” Campbell said.
He urged anyone with information to call his Utah shop at (801) 467-8636 or to contact the Long Beach Police Department regarding case number 24-28245.
The thief sent an email to the New York Times claiming to be part of a criminal network that targets the dead and elderly, particularly those from Florida and California, the outlet reported Tuesday.
The statement, which was sent in reply to questions about the case, came from an email address listed in court documents related to Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC. Riley Keough, Presley’s granddaughter and owner of Graceland, sued the company earlier this month to stop a foreclosure sale of the Memphis property.
“We figure out how to steal,” the thief wrote to the New York Times on Friday. “That’s what we do.”
Naussany Investments presented a deed of trust to the estate in September via the Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming that the late Lisa Marie Presley, Keough’s mother, borrowed $3.8 million from the company and offered Graceland as collateral. Keough fiercely disputed the claims, calling the documents “fraudulent” and “forgeries” in her lawsuit.
The alleged thief accepted defeat.
“I had fun figuring this one out and it didn’t succeed very well,” the statement continued.
Referencing Keough’s legal victories in the case, the message, as reportedly written, continued: “Yo client dont have nothing to worries, win fir her. She beat me at my own game.”
The New York Times reported that the thief wrote their message in Luganda, a Bantu language of Uganda. The email, the outlet said, was faxed from a North American toll-free number that also appeared in court documents.
A Tennessee judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the sale at a hearing last Wednesday, in which no representatives from Naussany Investments appeared. Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins said he would proceed with Keough’s fraud lawsuit, which asked the court to declare the deed of trust illegitimate.
Tennessee’s Shelby County Register of Deeds said last Tuesday that it did not have any filings relating to a Graceland deed, according to broadcast outlet WREG Memphis. The deed also included the signature of Florida notary Kimberly L. Philbrick, who submitted an affidavit stating she had never met Lisa Marie Presley or notarized a document signed by the singer.
Hours after the Wednesday ruling, a person purporting to be a Naussany Investments representative submitted a statement that said the company intended to drop its claims on Graceland, according to the Associated Press. However, the legal filings have yet to appear.
Elvis Presley Enterprises, which manages the Presley estate, told The Times in a statement at the time that it agreed with the court’s ruling to block the sale.
“As the court has now made clear, there was no validity to the claims,” the statement read. “There will be no foreclosure. Graceland will continue to operate as it has for the past 42 years, ensuring that Elvis fans from around the world can continue to have a best in class experience when visiting his iconic home.”
“General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor was fatally shot early Saturday when he came upon three men trying to steal the catalytic converter from his car, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case.
The incident occurred around 3:25 a.m. when the owner of a vehicle encountered three people near Pico Boulevard and Hope Street attempting to steal the car part, said Officer Jader Chaves, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department. The man was shot by one of the thieves before all three fled in a vehicle, said Chaves. The officer did not identify the victim but said he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A source on Sunday confirmed to The Times that the victim was Wactor, who played Brando Corbin on “General Hospital” from 2020 to 2022. He also had roles on other shows, including “Westworld,” “Criminal Minds” and “Station 19.”
Wactor, who had been working as a bartender in downtown L.A. on Saturday evening, was walking a co-worker to her car after their shift, Wactor’s brother, Grant Wactor, told The Times on Sunday. On the way, he noticed a group of men crowded around his car, and he confronted them because he thought he was being towed.
That was when he was shot.
The thieves were after Wactor’s catalytic converter, police said. The exhaust emission control device is typically found in the undercarriage of a vehicle and contains precious metals including rhodium, palladium and platinum. Thieves can make hundreds of dollars selling them to auto parts suppliers or scrapyards, where they can be melted down and the valuable metals extracted.
“My mother is tough as nails, but she’s broken down to the bone,” said Grant Wactor, Johnny’s younger brother. “We have to get him back to Charleston [S.C.]. It’s just a shame. It seems like it was just the wrong place, wrong time.”
Wactor, 37, left “General Hospital” in 2022 when his popular character was written out of the show. At the time, he told Soap Opera Digest he enjoyed the show’s large and loyal fan base.
“It was all new to me, and it was a blessing,” he said. “It made it fun to go to work and then be excited about seeing people react to the storylines you were in. That they actually cared was really cool.”
Former colleagues took to social media to mourn Wactor’s death on Sunday.
“Johnny Wactor was a beautiful, beautiful soul,” former “General Hospital” actor Parry Shen said on X. “We all were cheated of many years with him.”
Jon Lindstrom, a longtime cast member on the ABC soap, posted: “I am literally sick to my stomach at this news.” He called Wactor “one of those rare young men in this business who was kind, unassuming, humble.”
Grant Wactor said his brother was drawn to acting from an early age. Growing up in Sommerville, S.C., Johnny participated in every play he could in his elementary and middle schools. Not long after graduating from the College of Charleston in 2009, he packed up his Honda Civic and made the cross-country drive to Los Angeles to begin his acting career.
“I can’t emphasize how hard of a worker he was,” Grant Wactor said. “He would flip the Scrabble board at home because he was so competitive. But he was also one of the most charismatic people I knew. Because when he talked or listened, you could tell it was genuine.”
Johnny Wactor had recently been exploring opportunities in screenwriting while working temporarily as a bartender.
“He lived life his way,” Grant Wactor said. “He did exactly what he wanted, even to his last day. That’s who he was day in, day out. He walked the walk.”
Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth contributed to this report.
It was a strange mechanical sound — a kind of rhythmic whirring — and it wouldn’t quit.
At the time, the resident of Tahitian Mobile Home Park in Sylmar didn’t think much of the weekend racket, which seemed to be coming from a neighboring industrial building and may have lasted two hours or more, she said.
Now, though, after learning that the warehouse behind the park was breached by thieves who stole as much as $30 million in a Sunday night heist, the woman has fixated on that odd noise — and what it may have been.
“That sound is embedded in my head,” said the woman, who requested her name not be published over privacy concerns. “My mind is still going crazy over what happened. I know it’s just money, but they’re invading your space.”
The elaborate Easter heist is believed to be among the biggest in L.A. history. It occurred at a Roxford Street facility where cash from businesses across the Southland is handled and stored by GardaWorld, a security services company. In a display of uncommon sophistication, thieves breached the single-story building via its roof to gain access to its vault — and avoided the property’s alarm system, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation of the theft.
Montreal-based GardaWorld did not learn of the crime until opening the vault on Monday. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
George Alhosry, who owns the Kwik Market & Deli on Roxford, said the store’s Wi-Fi was down much of Sunday. “We couldn’t access the Lotto,” he said, adding that mobile phone calls failed in the area, too.
It’s unclear whether that was connected to the heist. But Wi-Fi jammers have become a common tool of theft gangs during their burglaries of homes in Southern California because they knock out many security cameras that could capture video or stills of them or their vehicles.
Authorities have so far said little about the mysterious heist, which is being investigated by the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department. The Times previously reported that there was also an effort by the thieves to breach the side of the GardaWorld building. It’s unclear whether this was part of their attempts to enter or exit the warehouse. A KABC-TV News video aired Wednesday night showed a large cut on the side of the structure that was covered by a piece of plywood. By Thursday afternoon, the wall appeared to be patched up.
The crime has rattled Sylmar, where residents and merchants near the GardaWorld building told The Times they were shocked that such an audacious heist occurred in their midst.
Yet some locals were more focused on street crime than a high-dollar heist that appeared to bear the hallmarks of a silver screen spectacle. Take Victor Benitez, who said that the particulars of the heist seemed to be plucked from a 1980s action movie. Standing near a shabby section of San Fernando Road, where shaggy palm trees wore their browning fronds like beards, he lamented that prostitution and violent crime are problems in the area.
“Five weeks ago, the police brought a dog in, they searched the area for an active shooter — but it wasn’t in the news,” said Benitez as a train rumbled by on adjacent tracks. “I would not recommend living here.”
Damage to a wall at the GardaWorld building in Sylmar appeared to be repaired on Thursday.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Sandi Gomez, a resident of the mobile home park whose property offers a view of the GardaWorld building, said she didn’t notice anything amiss over last weekend. She said she told FBI agents the same thing when they visited her Monday afternoon and asked if she “saw or heard anything suspicious around 4 a.m.” Sunday.
Gomez was asleep at the time.
The FBI agents also wanted to know about a security camera mounted on a portion of her home that faces the GardaWorld property. Gomez said she explained to the agents that the camera only offers a live view and doesn’t record footage. The next day, she said, LAPD investigators walked the area.
The mobile home park is a dense neighborhood of tightly spaced trailers lining numbered avenues. On Thursday afternoon, stray cats stalked a weedy patch at the back of the property, which is separated from the GardaWorld building by fences, unkempt foliage and a line of trees.
A representative of the mobile home park declined to comment.
The burgled facility, hemmed in on one side by the active train tracks, is owned by World Oil Corp. GardaWorld has been the sole tenant there since the warehouse was built in 2000, according to real estate data firm CoStar.
World Oil did not respond to requests for comment.
The GardaWorld episode comes nearly two years after another high-profile Southern California heist: the multimillion-dollar theft of jewelry from a Brink’s big rig at a Grapevine truck stop. There’s debate about the value of those pilfered goods, with estimates ranging from less than $10 million to more than $100 million. The July 2022 crime remains unsolved.
Rooftop burglaries have been extremely rare in Los Angeles — but there have been some notable ones in recent years. Last summer, burglars broke into Lincoln Fine Wines in Venice via a hole they cut in its roof. The thieves went on to steal about 800 bottles worth about $600,000 — making it one of the biggest wine crimes in California history.
That incident occurred at the start of the Fourth of July weekend, similar to the Easter thievery at the GardaWorld property. Scott Andrew Selby, co-author of “Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History,” said burglars sometimes strike on and around major holidays.
“This crew, like others, picked a holiday with fewest eyes paying attention,” he said.
Times staff writers Ruben Vives and Roger Vincent contributed to this report.
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to The Times on Tuesday that officers responded to a burglary around 9 a.m. Friday on the Woodland Hills block where Pierce lives. “Unknown items” were stolen, according to the LAPD, and no arrests have been made.
TMZ first reported that Pierce’s house had been burglarized on Friday while the 10-time NBA All-Star was not home.
The LAPD declined to comment on whether the incident may be connected to a growing trend of “burglary tourism,” in which thieves from South America enter the United States for the purpose of committing robberies, typically in wealthy neighborhoods.
After his retirement from the NBA, Pierce served as a basketball analyst for ESPN and more recently was a cast member on the Fox reality series “Stars on Mars.”
Last year, Pierce reached a $1.4-million settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchanges Commission over alleged unlawful crypto promotion. Pierce admitted to no wrongdoing in making the settlement.
Ali Zacharias recalled desperately clinging to the hood of the getaway car as it sped through downtown Los Angeles. Inside the vehicle was the thieves’ precious cargo: Onyx, her French bulldog and “buddy.”
Zacharias said her only thought was, “I’m not leaving this car. … I held on to the windshield wipers, thinking they wouldn’t drive if I was on the car.”
They did.
“Before I know it, we’re going like 40 miles per hour,” she said. She rode atop the hood for a short way before the car swerved and she rolled off. She was bruised and cut but not badly hurt, she said in an interview with The Times on Sunday.
But as Zacharias stood watching the car disappear, she felt bereft. Onyx was gone.
Onyx, a French bulldog with one blue eye and one green eye, was stolen from his owner in downtown L.A. on Jan. 18.
(Ali Zacharias)
The terrifying scene was caught on video, which was later posted on Instagram and has since gone viral.
Since the Jan. 18 incident, Zacharias has been victimized a second time, by a scammer playing on her desperation to find Onyx. The individual led her on a “goose chase” Sunday to extract $50 — for “gas money,” the person claimed — she told The Times.
Los Angeles police are investigating the incident but could not be reached for comment Sunday.
French bulldogs are one of the most popular small-breed dogs in the world, according to the American Kennel Club, “especially among city dwellers.” They’re known for their square heads, “bat” ears and charming disposition. Expensive and in high demand, the dogs have been a favorite target of thieves in recent years in the L.A. area.
Zacharis’ heartbreak began when the West Hollywood woman, who says she manufactures clothes, was on a lunch break with Onyx at a Whole Foods in downtown Los Angeles on Grand Avenue near 8th Street. Onlookers were watching the 44-year-old interact with her dog. The black-and-white-speckled French bulldog is a little over a year old and has different colored eyes, the left blue and the right green.
“They were watching me feed him meatballs and white fish. … I spoil him.”
He ducked under the table where she was sitting; she let him go as he explored. The next thing she knew, she said, a woman had picked up Onyx and was walking away with him.
Onyx is a little over a year old.
(Ali Zacharias)
“I thought it was a misunderstanding,” Zacharias said, so she followed, calling out to the woman, who got into a white Kia Forte. And still, she “didn’t punch into the fact that my dog was stolen. … I wasn’t in that mode.”
So she attempted to follow the woman into the car, which held four people, before being pushed out. They locked the door. Zacharias said she realized they were “about to drive off with my dog, so I stood in front of the car, and I was holding my hands up, like, ‘Stop, do not go,’ and they drove into me and I fell onto the hood.”
When she tried to describe to loved ones what had happened, they weren’t able to appreciate it, she said — until Saturday, when she said she became aware of video circulating on social media that showed those terrifying moments on the hood of the car.
“I get wind of this video on Instagram, and it changed my whole world,” she said, “because I had felt completely alone.”
The video, taken by witness Harrison Pessy, has drawn a lot of interest from news outlets and social media channels, and Zacharias said she hoped that would help police solve the case.
“I hope the next story about this is a reunification story.”
A poster promising a reward has been circulated in the theft of a French bulldog in downtown L.A. on Jan. 18.
An infernal thief tried to walk out of Manhattan’s famed Cathedral of St. John the Divine with a $100,000 religious statue, police said Sunday.
The crook showed up at the landmark Episcopal church on Amsterdam Ave. at W. 112th St. dressed all in black about 8:30 p.m. Dec. 3, according to cops. But he didn’t have much of a plan to pull off the unholy heist.
He started to lift one of the cathedral’s statues, worth at least $100,000 but when he spotted security staff he ran off empty handed, police said.
The church, which can hold 5,000 worshipers and is touted as the world’s largest Gothic cathedral, is famed for its annual Procession of Animals.
Cops released surveillance footage of the crook in action and asked the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down.. (DCPI)
It was ravaged by fire in 2001 and damaged again in a 2019 blaze. In December 2020, police shot and killed an apparently suicidal double-pistol waving gunman on the cathedral steps.
Cops released surveillance footage of the crook in action and asked the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down. He is describes as between 45 and 50, about 5-foot-10 and 220 pounds with a light complexion.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Warsaw witnessed a theft straight out of a heist movie when a 22-year-old man stood motionless in a shop window and convincingly posed as a mannequin. Polish police have now charged the suspect, ensuring this innovative criminal won’t be blending into the backdrop anytime soon.
Man Posed as Mannequin in Broad Daylight
The audacious individual positioned himself amongst other display dummies, a bag in hand, in a store in the central Warsaw district of Śródmieście. Both staff and shoppers alike were completely fooled by his act. He didn’t move an inch, hoping to be mistaken for one of the display mannequins. It’s an act many might find challenging, but this man had apparently mastered the art of staying perfectly still.
His scheme wasn’t just about standing around, however. Once he felt he’d established his cover, he ventured deeper into the store, targeting the jewelry department. There, under the guise of after-hours shadows and amid the lifeless mannequins, he helped himself to various pieces of jewelry.
A Series of Shopping Centre Stunts
But the Warsaw shop window incident wasn’t this suspect’s first venture into crime. Polish police have linked him to a series of other incidents at shopping centers. On one occasion, after closing hours, he purportedly indulged himself at a shopping center bar, relishing whatever food was left out.
His appetite wasn’t limited to just food. He also visited a designer clothes shop, not for a casual shopping spree, but rather a sly swap. The suspect allegedly exchanged his attire for fresh clothes right off the racks. This particular incident gave away a crucial clue – he was caught on CCTV slipping through a minuscule gap under the store’s shutters, revealing both his audacity and agility.
Yet another event tied to him involves a more direct approach to theft. He is believed to have stealthily waited for a store to shut down for the day, after which he took cash from several registers. Apart from cash, he reportedly tried to pilfer other items from the store.
The career pickpocket uncle of slain Michael Jackson impersonator Jordan Neely was arrested for the second time in as many weeks on Wednesday, according to police.
Christopher Neely, 44, was booked at the NYPD’s 19th Precinct stationhouse in Lenox Hill on multiple counts of grand larceny stemming from three separate Manhattan heists since August last year, cops said.
Most recently, Neely snatched a designer Chanel purse valued at $15,000 from off a woman’s chair inside a Church St. eatery between White and Walker Sts. around 8:23 p.m. on May 18, cops said.
Christopher Neely, the uncle of Jordan Neely.
He’s also accused of racking up thousands of dollars in bogus charges on stolen credit cards, including plastic he nabbed from a woman’s purse inside an E. 82nd St. diner between Third and Lexington Aves. at 5 p.m. on April 27, according to police.
Detectives also connected Christopher Neely to the $8,958 in fraudulent charges an Astor Place resident spotted on their credit card bill on Aug. 19.
He ducked into the subway to evade cops, jumping a turnstile before grappling with officers in an effort to evade arrest, according to police sources.
Jordan Neely of Manhattan is pictured while performing as Michael Jackson at the 59th. St. subway station in 2011. (Mariela Lombard/for New York Daily News)
Cops have previously hit Neely with charges including rape, robbery and burglary, although most of his two-dozen priors are theft related, cops said.
The suspect’s 30-year-old homeless nephew, Jordan Neely, was killed on an F train in Manhattan after Marine veteran Daniel Penny, 24, placed him in a chokehold on May 1.
Penny, who was charged with second-degree manslaughter and released on $100,000 bond, claimed in a statement that he was protecting himself and other straphangers from the Michael Jackson impersonator.
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