.
Feedback

Fourth Arrest Made in Series of Car Burglaries at East County Parks

Detectives are tracking down those allegedly responsible for a two week spree of vehicle burglaries at East County San Diego open-space parks.

Sheriff's detectives arrested a fourth suspect in a series of recent auto at East County San Diego open-space parks by tracking the global-positioning device in a stolen cell phone.

Authorities arrested Lakeside resident Jess Oliver "Peggo" Havens, 29, at a motel on East Main Street in El Cajon on Tuesday morning, sheriff's Sgt. Tom Poulin said.

He was entered into the county jail on charges of burglary, possession of burglary tools and identity theft with bail set at $105,000.

Beginning on March 26, thieves broke into three vehicles around Lakeside's El Capitan Open Space Preserve and break-ins have continued for two weeks at Blue Sky Canyon Ecological Reserve in Poway and in San Diego.

According to Poulin, the owners of the vehicles were burglarized of items such as wallets, purses and cell phones while hiking. Haven is alleged to have taken part in this series of burglaries. One cell phone, an , was equipped with GPS and aided in the arrest, according to Poulin.

After the break-ins were reported, the victim's stolen credit cards were used to buy goods at ten businesses throughout Santee and Lakeside, according to authorities.

The first arrests related to these crimes took place on April 4, when detectives arrested David Rodriguez, 20, and a 15-year-old girl at a home on Wildcat Canyon Road in Lakeside.

Rachelle Valdez, 23, was subsequently arrested at the 500 block of Chase Avenue in El Cajon and booked on theft related felony charges.

According to Poulin, detectives have recovered most of the goods bought with stolen credit cards and more arrests are expected.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Follow Santee Patch on Facebook and Twitter.

Newsletter & Alerts

Get the best stories each day and important breaking news

Subscribe

Not from Santee Patch? Find your Local Patch »

Loading comments ...
Note Article
Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
Steven Bartholow (Editor) May 16, 2013 at 03:53 pm
Thanks for posting this. I also added this to our events list. In the future I suggest posting anRead More announcement and event for maximum exposure- http://santee.patch.com/posts/event/new Good luck with the fundraiser!
RainWaterSystems May 17, 2013 at 10:58 am
That's awesome! We wish you success and recovery. We suggest two books; A Purpose Driven Life byRead More Rick Warren and Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. I hope to be in a position to hire a salesman this fall.
Steven Bartholow (Editor) May 16, 2013 at 10:34 am
Anyone else recommend a Santee family owned business that's outside the city?
Steven Bartholow (Editor) May 20, 2013 at 02:31 pm
Search for "Quail Brush" in the search bar in the top right corner.Read More http://santee.patch.com/search?keywords=Quail+Brush
Retha Knight May 17, 2013 at 11:05 pm
Where do you type what you want to view, like "Quail Brush"?
Steven Bartholow (Editor) May 17, 2013 at 10:01 am
No drop down menus, just click the header links for more options. For story categories click newsRead More and look on the left hand column. I know the redesign will take a bit to get used to, but I really think it will be a better site for community engagement, and easier to use. Feel free to post your feedback to the redesign on the boards, I'll check it out and respond, but you might also send your feedback straight to Patch headquarters with this form- http://feedback.aol.com/rs/rs.php?sid=patch Engineers will be furiously tweeking the new site based on your suggestions.
Mike Walker April 23, 2013 at 01:20 pm
this is why the battlefield has changed temporarily from the political arena to the Energy Arena.Read More Co Gen Tricks and the usual suspects are making their big money bet on two inevitable facts that will force the hand of the CPUC and CEC to place a new gas power plant somewhere in the area. 1) the Electric Vehicle Mandate. 2) voltage support (power factor) needed by the industrial wind and solar farms in the desert. There is more to what meets the eye with the aggressive push by the usual suspects to cover our open spaces in the East County with these poorly sited RE projects. More wind and solar farms means more gas power plants. There is only one way to fight the destruction of our open spaces, and that is with roof top solar, conservation, energy efficiency and community owned energy districts. The fisrt thing that needs to be done is the City of Santee exempt residential scale PV installs from needing a building permit. Australia, Germany and the State of Vermont do not require a Building Permit to install PV.
Retha Knight April 23, 2013 at 03:48 am
Well said Stephen! Knowledge is TRULY power! The fight is not over! Cogentrix is just onceRead More again playing their wait, wait, wait game in the public eye and playing their lobbying game behind closed doors.
just my opinion April 22, 2013 at 01:04 am
Stephen, well said!!!!!