Authorities are investigating multiple break-ins at businesses across West Los Angeles that occurred early Tuesday morning, and multiple arrests have been made in connection with them, police say.
The burglaries all took place in the West L.A. neighborhoods of Marina del Rey, Del Rey and Venice between 1:45 a.m. and 3:45 a.m., according to preliminary information from police.
Of the businesses that were broken into, five are located in the Marina Center shopping plaza on Lincoln Boulevard: L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, Rubio’s Coastal Grill, Nick the Greek, Juice Crafters and Starbucks.
The owner of Nick the Greek told KTLA 5’s Annie Rose Ramos that he doesn’t keep a large amount of cash in the restaurant, so the burglars weren’t able to get away with much.
Meanwhile, the owner of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue told Ramos that this is the second time his restaurant has been hit this month.
“We had a couple of guys come in…fortunately we had some cleaning people upstairs,” said shopping center manager Rick Tavarez. “[One of] the cleaning ladies…heard multiple smashes and walked around to the side balcony, looked down and saw a couple of guys breaking the windows and going in and out.”
The cleaning lady immediately called 911, Tavarez said.
Around the corner from Marina Center, an Ulta Beauty store had its windows smashed, and the Centinela Cafe, located about two miles away at 4800 Centinela Avenue in Del Rey, was also the victim of a burglary early Tuesday morning.
LAPD officers were in the area investigating the window smash at Ulta Beauty when they found that several businesses in the adjacent Marina Center plaza were also hit, according to reports from stringer service KeyNewsTV.
Hours after the Marina Del Rey burglaries, another small business was broken into in Venice, this time at Dudley Market, located at the corner of Dudley Avenue and Speedway.
The burglar was unable to get away, however, as a nearby resident happened to be sitting on his balcony and saw the restaurant being broken into.
Video obtained by KTLA shows the man taking the suspect to the ground outside the Dudley Market and pinning him down until police arrived. He was eventually taken into custody.
“As soon as I got to the bottom of the stairs, he started running up the street, but he decided to sit up there and wait to see if the police were going to show up,” the good Samaritan said. “And when they didn’t, he decided to come steal some more…as soon as he jumped out of the window he quite literally jumped into my arms.”
LAPD officials confirmed to KTLA 5’s Lauren Lyster late Tuesday morning that the two suspects in the Marina Center burglary spree were arrested.
Authorities do not believe the Marina Del Rey burglaries are connected with the Venice burglary, but they do believe that they may be connected to the Ulta Beauty and Centinela Cafe burglaries.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office released a statement saying in part:
“According to reports, these matters are under active investigation by local law enforcement. Once the cases have been submitted to LADA, we will work expeditiously to thoroughly review the case submissions and file as appropriate. We are committed to working diligently with law enforcement agencies to address this matter seriously and to hold those responsible accountable. In a news conference last month, District Attorney George Gascón reported that nearly 200 cases involving organized retail theft have been prosecuted since early 2023. Our office files charges 87% of the time when presented with organized retail theft cases by local law enforcement agencies.”