XPost: talk.politics.guns, mn.politics, talk.politics.misc   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   From: timmy.walz@lies.alot   
      
   Twin Cities police departments estimate more than 60 homes have been hit   
   across a dozen metro cities by burglars targeting high-end homes with   
   sophisticated tools.   
      
   EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn — In a nice Eden Prairie neighborhood, highlighted by a   
   walking path, the home of Sarah and James Shaser was burglarized on Jan. 9.   
      
   "They took jewelry," the Shasers said. "Mainly gold and watches and things   
   like that. They really knew what they were doing."   
      
   The Shasers didn't realize it at the time, but they had fallen victim to what   
   metro police departments now believe is a complex burglary ring involving   
   South American suspects that has targeted 60-plus homes across 12 Minnesota   
   cities using sophisticated    
   surveillance and tools like Wi-Fi and cell phone jammers.   
      
   Investigators later learned through GPS that the burglars' rental car was   
   parked a couple blocks away where a walking path runs behind the Shasers'   
   home. The couple assumes the thieves scoped out the homes from the path, saw   
   theirs was dark, and figured    
   it would make a good one to target.   
      
   The Shasers knew it wasn't an average smash and grab when they saw how the   
   burglars entered.   
      
   "It was not a broken window. It was a cut window," the Shasers said. "They cut   
   the window somehow, pulled it out and set it inside, right inside the house."   
      
   Then, 10 days later, 1100 miles away, Eden Prairie police learned of an arrest.   
      
   "Sometimes you get a break in the case, and this was one of those breaks that   
   really helped us a lot," said Eden Prairie Sgt. Lonnie Soppeland.   
      
   A group of four Chilean nationals using fake Argentina IDs was arrested during   
   a burglary in suburban Philadelphia. Radnor Township Police say the youngest   
   suspect, Felipe Sandoval, escaped their custody when he started vomiting in   
   the squad car,    
   loosened his hands from the cuffs, then ran when they let him outside to   
   finish throwing up.   
      
   But they charged the other three suspects, Miguel Guzman Pardo, Alejandro   
   Gallardo Sepulveda, and Yanara Venegas Rodriguez, with burglary.   
      
   With the help of those Pennsylvania authorities, Eden Prairie police   
   determined Venegas, the female suspect, had a ring belonging to Sarah.   
      
   And this Guzman Pardo had left a clear footprint in snow outside the Shasers'   
   window. After being extradited to Hennepin County in August, he pleaded guilty   
   and received his sentence in court on Wednesday. Judge Daniel Moreno gave him   
   a suspended    
   sentence and probation, noting that Guzman Pardo will now be sent to Ohio to   
   face burglary charges there before facing deportation.   
      
   Search warrants filed by various Minnesota law enforcement agencies since that   
   January crime Court papers reveal the scope of the investigation into this   
   same group by multiple police departments.   
      
   Guzman-Pardo now admits he rented an SUV in Los Angeles on January 2nd.   
      
   According to court documents, that SUV with California plates was then tracked   
   using GPS and license plate readers over the next few days near other   
   burglaries in Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa before reaching the Twin Cities on Jan.   
   9 when the Shaser home was    
   broken into.   
      
   Police in Minnetonka, Golden Valley, Chanhassen and St. Louis Park also   
   believed the SUV was connected to burglaries in their cities in that time   
   frame.   
      
   After leaving Minnesota, court papers say the rental SUV was traced to   
   burglaries in Chicago, Ohio, then the suburbs of Philadelphia where on January   
   19th, the suspects were arrested following a series of residential burglaries.   
      
   Pennsylvania court documents say inside the vehicle, police found large bags   
   "filled to capacity with items," burglary tools, and a large signal jammer —   
   a device that can disarm surveillance cameras and alarms that rely on Wi-Fi.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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