Hollister
– The Hollister Police Department made a major breakthrough in
its unsolved theft cases Wednesday when it linked at least 11
burglaries to a Hollister man arrested in December.
Hollister – The Hollister Police Department made a major breakthrough in its unsolved theft cases Wednesday when it linked at least 11 burglaries to a Hollister man arrested in December.
Police charged Phillip Hermosillo, 22, with four felony and five misdemeanor counts relating to the burglaries after finding a multitude of stolen items Wednesday in two storage units under his name, authorities said.
Hermosillo was arrested Dec. 5 on suspicion of burglarizing Progresso’s Restaurant on Third Street in Hollister, police said.
There were 49 burglaries in December. Since then, police have received an average of six fewer reports per month, according to police records. As of Thursday, there have been 15 burglaries reported in the month of May.
From January 2004 to September 2006, the city averaged 18 burglaries per month, according to police records. During the last quarter of 2006, the city averaged 40 burglaries per month.
“We tend to look at these as the tip of the iceberg,” Capt. Bob Brooks told the Free Lance on Thursday.
Officer Rosie Betanio, a spokeswoman for the Hollister Police Department, said items found in the storage unit included televisions, computers and firearms.
“It still appears to be in good condition,” Betanio said of the property. “And the victims have been getting their property back.”
Betanio said the department found the property belonging to at least 11 victims of both residential and commercial burglaries in Hollister, San Benito County and Santa Clara County in one of the storage units.
Officers spent Thursday sorting through property in a second storage unit, Brooks said.
The police department received a phone call Wednesday morning about the two storage units at Premiere Storage Center on McCray Street.
The storage company informed Hermosillo’s family that it planned to auction off any stored items because of nonpayment, Betanio said.
After Hermosillo’s family inspected the unit and found property marked with business names, they called the police department, Betanio said.
No additional arrests are expected in the case.
Hermosillo was charged with four felony and three misdemeanor counts of receiving stolen property, and two misdemeanor counts of appropriating lost property, police said.
In 2005 and 2006, Hermosillo was convicted in San Benito County Superior Court of knife possession and illegal weapon possession, both misdemeanors, according to court documents.
If convicted of one felony count of receiving stolen property, Hermosillo could face up to one year in state prison. He is being held in the San Benito County Jail in lieu of $57,000 in bail, according to jail personnel.
