It was a scene so unusual the cops had to stop and take a picture.
In downtown Los Angeles in June, police investigating a string of residential burglaries happened upon their suspects as they tried to make a daring escape.
When officers searched a seventh-floor apartment and stepped out onto the apartment balcony, there they found their suspects — huddled and trying to stay out of view on a neighboring balcony.
“Detectives quickly realized that the four suspects … tight roped across a narrow ledge to a neighboring apartment balcony!” Burbank police wrote on Instagram, sharing a picture of the men crouched below the balcony railing with a label saying “Suspects” and an arrow pointing down at them.
Burbank investigators had been working a burglary case which led them to serve a search warrant to the downtown L.A. apartment., the department said in its post.
In the end, authorities arrested six people they believed to be tied to a South American theft ring.
In the last few years, groups of foreign nationals have been traveling to the U.S. on tourist visas, then breaking into homes in affluent neighborhoods in what police call “burglary tourism.” These crews use rental properties as their bases of operation and use highly sophisicated methods to gain entry into homes, including using jamming devices to interfere with security surveillance equipment that use Wi-Fi signals and surveillance cameras to monitor residents’ routines.
The Burbank Police Department did not disclose the names of the four suspects they found on the balcony, but said they had been renting the apartment that was searched.
Inside the unit, detectives found jewelry, cash and handbags. They also seized three vehicles. Images shared by police show several pairs of shoes, multiple forms of foreign currency and a blender used to make “pink cocaine” next to empty baggies. Authorities said the items confirmed the suspects’ connection to five burglaries in Burbank, Monterey Park and Chino Hills.
The suspects were arrested and booked for residential burglary and receiving stolen property, according to authorities.
In an unrelated case in May, seven Colombian nationals were arrested in Arizona in connection to home break-ins in Burbank and other Southern California cities. The suspects were linked to burglaries in California, Oregon and Washington.
Scottsdale Police Officer Aaron Bolin said one of the female members of the group used a dog as part of the group’s cover, walking a stolen French bulldog to blend in with the neighborhood while acting as a lookout.
The bulldog was taken by the group during a burglary in California and was among the stolen items recovered, according to Scottsdale police.
Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
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