A thief known for his unique approach – sneaking into businesses to avoid motion-activated alarms – was caught sneaking into a gold exchange and making off with $50,000 in cash.
Surveillance footage shows the so-called ‘snake burglar’ crawling on the carpet at the Crown Gold Exchange in Riverside, California, about 55 miles east of Los Angeles, last week.
The thief broke into a vacant storefront next door, used a hammer to smash through the drywall and snuck to Crown Gold Exchange. He then spent five minutes searching the back room, owner Cesar Meyer told KTLA.
The burglar’s approach is virtually the same as that used in at least six Riverside robberies in recent months, police say.
At the Body Tan Salon and Spa in November, a man kicked a side window at ground level and cut a slab of rock before slipping out and emptying the register.
California has been plagued by looters and an increase in property crimes over the past year.
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Surveillance footage shows the so-called ‘snake burglar’ crawling on the carpet at the Crown Gold Exchange in Riverside, California
He squirmed on the floor to avoid motion detectors and walked away with $50,000 in cash
The theft took place last week at the Crown Gold Exchange in Riverside, California, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
Owner Cesar Meyer said the man was inside the store for a good five minutes and broke into the drywall of a vacant business next door.
Police are still investigating whether the gold exchange thief is the same person who carried out the November robberies.
“This Crown Gold Exchange robbery appears to be very similar, if not the same, to the suspect of the others in late November. Our detectives are following leads but we have yet to identify the suspect,’ Riverside Police spokesman Ryan J. Railsback told DailyMail.com.
The Crown Gold Exchange video shows the man wearing a dark hoodie, dark pants and sneakers.
He opens the drawers while he stays on the floor, taking things out and back out.
“This guy snuck in, crawled on the floor much like Lt. Dan, hand over hand, didn’t move his legs and was able to search my entire back room for five minutes. “, said Meyer. , the owner.
He blames his ADT alarm system for not alerting him.
“There’s definitely something wrong, something going on with the ADT motion detectors, because if they’re designed to detect motion, this guy gets around a lot in all of these businesses, and motion detectors… ‘ADTs don’t detect it,’ Meyer told KTLA.
A burglar with a similar ‘snake’ tactic broke into at least six businesses in Riverside through December.
Police are investigating whether the gold swap thief is the same man caught crawling through the lobby of the Rustic Roots barbershop around 5am on November 26
That same night, he also broke into the Body Tan Salon and Spa just down the street.
He kicked a pane of glass and cut through the slab of rock before slipping out and taking all the money from the ledger
CCTV footage caught him slipping in the lobby of the Rustic Roots hair salon around 5 a.m. on November 26.
He appears to have entered and exited through an emergency exit in the ceiling, KTLA reports.
Merchandise was missing, the register was open and $8,000 was missing, according to owner Lori Hajj.
Hajj also had security cameras and motion detectors.
“Basically, your sensors need to be, like, in the middle of your business. It’s not like a house, it’s a business. And because they’re so high, it doesn’t detect them. The alarm will not sound,” she said.
“Basically, your sensors need to be, like, in the middle of your business,” said Lori Hajj, who was targeted by the snake burglar. ‘And because they’re so high, it doesn’t detect them. The alarm won’t sound,” she said.
Suzanna Velarde, who owns Body Tan Salon and Spa just down the street from the hair salon, believes the same burglar hit her business.
Surveillance footage shows a person crawling outside the front door of his business the same night as the barbershop robbery.
“He crawled on the floor to the register. He took all the money,” she said. “I couldn’t even sleep at night.”
Riverside police have not identified any suspects in the burglaries.
