Long Beach police: Have you had equipment/tools stolen recently?

Long Beach police are asking for the public’s help in identifying property recovered from a series of thefts in the city and in neighboring communities over the last year.

An investigation spaing several months yielded recovery of stolen property including: gardening equipment, plumbing equipment, construction tools and high-end bicycles, police said. Many of the items are believed to have been stolen from work trucks or in conjunction with theft of work trucks themselves.

Agustin Garfias Jr., a 19-year-old Long Beach resident, has been arrested on suspicion of his involvement with at least one of the robberies.

A chain of events ending with a suspect’s arrest began Feb. 3 when a witness reported the theft of a leaf blower from a gardener’s vehicle in the 3500 block of Pine Avenue, police said. The witness gave officers a license plate number, which police used to track down an address.

Police found the leaf blower and other stolen property in the vehicle, and detectives secured a search warrant for the address traced to the license place where they recovered “a large number of items believed to be loss from thefts reported during the year.”

Lawful owners of several of the items have not yet been identified.

Police arrested Garfias on suspicion of stealing the leaf blower, police said. He was booked at Long Beach Jail for receiving known stolen property and petty theft. He was released later the same day after posting bail.

Detectives are still looking for the respective owners to most of the property. Proof of legal ownership will need to be substantiated prior to retu of items. If you have been the victim of a burglary or theft of items similar to the ones described above, you are urged to call the Burglary Detectives Tomb Neal or Daniel Molinar at 562-570-7351.

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