Thieves disguised as fishermen target surfers at La Jolla beaches<\/p>\n
Surfers are being warned against leaving their car keys and wallets behind when heading into the water after law enforcement officials announced they are investigating a series of thefts at San Diego beaches, including in La Jolla.<\/p>\n
Four thefts were reported at beaches in the La Jolla and Pacific Beach areas between March and June 16, and at least one vehicle theft occurred in Bird Rock, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Jared Grieshaber.<\/p>\n
The investigation is being conducted by the San Diego County Regional Auto Theft Task Force, or RATT, a unit consisting of 14 agencies from across the region.<\/p>\n
Investigators said the thefts are being committed by people who often are disguised as fishermen. The thieves watch as surfers unload their vehicles before they enter the water.\u00a0The thieves then find vehicle keys the victims may hide in places such as magnetic lockboxes and steal the vehicle or other valuables such as credit cards, Grieshaber said. They use the stolen credit cards to make fraudulent purchases at nearby retailers, he said.<\/p>\n
In the Bird Rock case, detectives recovered the stolen vehicle key, as well as thousands of dollars in items that were purchased with stolen credit cards, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Two arrests have been made so far in connection with the thefts.<\/p>\n
Investigators said they believe there may be more victims and asked anyone with information about these or similar thefts to call RATT at (858) 627-4000.<\/p>\n
Police blotter<\/p>\n
Additional details were unavailable from San Diego police.<\/p>\n
May 29<\/p>\n
\u2022 Vehicle break-in\/theft: 5400 block Soledad Road, 1 a.m.<\/p>\n
May 31<\/p>\n
\u2022 Fraud: 700 block Pearl Street, 1:05 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Petty theft: 2300 block Vallecitos, 10:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
June 3<\/p>\n
\u2022 Fraud: 7800 block Eads Avenue, 1:35 p.m.<\/p>\n
June 4<\/p>\n
\u2022 Petty theft: 1000 block Wall Street, 12:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Fraud: 7100 block Monte Vista Avenue, 6:20 p.m.<\/p>\n
June 7<\/p>\n
\u2022 Vehicle break-in\/theft: 5700 block La Jolla Corona Drive, 11:08 a.m.<\/p>\n
June 24<\/p>\n
\u2022 Felony vandalism: 1900 block Parkview Terrace, 5:26 a.m.<\/p>\n
June 26<\/p>\n
\u2022 Felony assault with a deadly weapon: 1100 block Coast Boulevard, 10:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Felony stalking: 8800 block Villa La Jolla Drive, 12:36 p.m. \u2666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thieves disguised as fishermen target surfers at La Jolla beaches Surfers are being warned against leaving their car…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,36328,1582,276,3548,7354,19284,27684,3549,3550,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-901668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-bird-rock","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-la-jolla","tag-la-jolla-light","tag-la-jolla-light-news","tag-la-jolla-shores","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116835661221683854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}