Seal Beach Police officials say there were at least two different groups responsible for the series of residential burglaries in the Hill area. (For other Sun crime news, see the Crime Log on the Crime page of this website.)
As previously reported, there were 10 burglaries in the Hill area of Seal Beach between April 24 and Aug. 2. Five of the burglaries occurred in May.
On Friday, Aug. 9, detectives arrested Long Beach resident Christian Castellanos-Leiva and booked him on two counts of burglary. He was released on $50,000 bail.
Sgt. Ron La Velle, public information officer for the Seal Beach Police Department, recently confirmed that there appeared to be two different groups responsible for the burglaries.
La Velle said police have identified three suspects and two were already in custody on other charges. Those arrestees do not include Castellanos-Leiva.
Police Chief Joe Stilinovich told the Sun that residents need to be alert. He confirmed that there appeared to be two groups responsible for the Hill burglaries.
However, Stilinovich also wanted the public to be aware of “knock-knock” burglaries.
He said the suspects would knock on a door and, if no one answered, the would go around the side of a property and break in.
In Los Alamitos, police have warned residents about “distraction burglaries,” in which thieves will knock on a resident’s door and while one suspect talks to the resident, another sneaks around the house and breaks in.
