Luxury items and guns were seized as LAPD officers served search and arrest warrants last week — nabbing at least 8 alleged thieves suspected of burglarizing dozens of homes across Southern California in recent months.
During the searches detectives found illegal firearms, stolen designer bags, including Guccis, and electronic devices used to scope-out potential targets and neuter security systems during the burglaries, multiple law enforcement sources told NBC LA.
The LAPD confirmed the arrests and searches last week but declined to share details, opting to withhold specifics until a press conference with Mayor Karen Bass set for Monday morning.
These arrests, made last Wednesday morning, follow other large law enforcement operations aimed at teams of burglars, or ‘crews,’ suspected of home break-ins, including the recent arrests of 2 adults and 2 teens suspected in the burglary at the Los Feliz home of Brad Pitt and other celebrity break-ins.
The adults have been charged with burglarizing homes in LA and Orange Counties, and authorities told NBC LA numerous additional charges are expected to be filed.
Earlier this month a surveillance detail from the LA IMPACT task force surveilled, chased, and arrested 2 men allegedly observed burglarizing a home in Woodland Hills. Those men have been charged with residential burglary.
The spike in recent home break-ins, in particular in the West San Fernando Valley, drew attention from area residents following the murders of American Idol music supervisor Robin Kaye and her husband, Thomas Deluca, who police said were shot to death when they walked-in on a burglary in progress.
Days after their bodies were found a homeowner nearby shot and wounded a prowler armed with a crowbar, who had smashed into him home around 5:30 a.m. The LAPD said the wounded person turned out to be a 14-year-old teen who was detained on suspicion of burglary.
LAPD crime data has shown an overall reduction in the number of burglaries since January, 2025, when compared with the same time period in 2024, although it is unclear whether a reduction in residential or commercial burglaries within that data was responsible for the decline.