VENTURA, Calif. — A California man returning home is credited with interrupting a burglary by hitting one suspect and detaining another until deputies arrived.
Investigators said in a news release that the first suspect was able to get into a waiting vehicle and get away.
“I just didn’t give him a chance, just hit him, because first of all, I don’t know if he has a gun, a knife, any kind of weapon, right? You just don’t know your mind goes crazy,” Sal Mercado, the homeowner, told KTLA.
Deputies arrested Alexis Provoste Aranguiz, who faces multiple felony charges in relation to the attempted burglary.
In a news release, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said that Aranguiz is a suspected member of a South American theft group. Such groups are accused of sending criminals on trips to the United States to break into homes and steal before returning to their home countries in a trend called “crime tourism,” KTLA reported.
“It’s been pretty prevalent for a couple of years,” Capt. Cameron Henderson of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re seeing these types of theft groups come from out of the country and commit these types of burglaries, and then they’re flown out.”
Sgt. Greg Gibson, also with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, told the paper the county recorded more than 100 crimes from South American theft groups in 2021.
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