A 32-year-old Santa Barbara man has been arrested in connection with the burglary last month of a downtown Santa Barbara cell phone store.
Juan Antonio Barajas was arrested Tuesday and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of felony commerical burglary stemming from a break-in that occurred May 25 at the Sprint retail store at 1011 State St., according to Sgt. Joshua Morton of the Santa Barbara Police Department.
His bail was set at $20,000.
The break-in was part of a spree of commercial burglaries reported last month in Santa Barbara.
Officers were dispatched at about 11:20 p.m. on May 25 after several witnesses reported a burglary in process at the Sprint store, Morton said.
“The witnesses were walking on State Street when they heard an audible alarm sounding from the business,” Morton said. “Upon reaching the front of the business, they observed glass on the ground and the front door broken out. To their surprise, a male subject was still inside the store placing items into a bag.”
The burglar was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, gloves and a mask.
Scroll down to see video of the break-in.
“When the suspect inside realized there were witnesses outside watching him, he quickly exited the business and ran southbound on State Street,” Morton said.
Video images collected from within the store show the suspect used some type of slingshot to break out the glass, then make entry into the store, Morton said. Once inside, the suspect proceeded to cut the security cables on several of the display phones and other related merchandise and place them into a bag.
Losses were estimated at $7,500.
The suspect was described as possibly a white or light-skinned Hispanic male wearing a black hat, blue Nike shirt, blue jeans, black shoes and black and gray gloves.
At least five others businesses — including Los Arroyos Restaurant, Harry’s Plaza Cafe and Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro in Loreto Plaza and Blenders in the Grass on the Mesa — have had similar break-ins in May, Morton said.
There also were break-ins reported in Carpinteria and at other Coast Village Road businesses earlier in the month.
“We don’t know if they are related,” Morton said of the most recent cases.
In some of the break-ins, alarms were triggered, but the thieves had fled by the time officers arrived.
Some of the locations had surveillance video, which was being reviewed by detectives, Morton said.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
Video of Sprint Store Break-in from Noozhawk on Vimeo.