Police in El Segundo have been busy lately catching suspected criminals thought to be targeting high-value sports gear and memorabilia.
The most recent arrest was Friday, when officers investigating a theft in the 700 block of Pacific Coast Highway pulled over a vehicle with a man and woman inside a short distance from the business where several items were stolen.
After confirming the two were the suspects, police collected about $1,500 worth of stolen Dodgers jackets and other gear inside the vehicle, the department said in a Facebook post.
But that haul was tiny compared to the value of stolen sports memorabilia officers pulled in a week earlier, the department said.
On April 10, police investigating a grand theft report at a business in the 200 block of Center Street ended up arresting a man and woman suspected of stealing a signed Hank Aaron baseball jersey and some $500,000 in sports cards from a storage unit.
When officers arrived, a man fitting the description of a person involved in the theft tried to run out of the business. Instead of getting away, the man ran into more police officers and after a struggle, was taken into custody, police said.
Police said they found a loaded handgun in the suspect’s pants and booked him on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, stolen property and narcotics, driving a stolen vehicle and obstructing an officer.
Police also found a woman inside the business who they say matched a description of a suspect, and took her into custody.
She was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of stolen property, possession of narcotics with two or more prior convictions, and possession of identity theft items with a prior conviction, police said.
During the investigation, police said they learned the pair were suspects in another city’s theft and connected them to the stolen jersey and valuable sports cards.
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