A teenager suspected of committing multiple car break-ins at San Francisco tourist spots was arrested along with a known car burglar after a police chase in Oakland over the weekend, authorities said Thursday.
In a news release, San Francisco police said officers were conducting a citywide car break-in investigation Saturday afternoon when plainclothes officers working near the Palace of Fine Arts in the city’s Marina District observed a vehicle being broken into. Officers began following the suspect vehicle but were diverted due to the driver’s evasive and illegal maneuvers and the risk to public safety, police said.
Shortly after the suspect and vehicle description were passed on to other units, an officer spotted the vehicle in the area of Masonic Avenue at Golden Gate Avenue in the northern Panhandle district, police said. The vehicle was followed east to Alamo Square, another tourist attraction targeted by car burglars, where officers saw the suspect break into another vehicle, police said.
The suspect again lost officers who followed him with illegal evasive maneuvers, police said. Eventually, another officer spotted the car driving east on Interstate Highway 80 and onto the Bay Bridge. The car was followed to the 800 block of West MacArthur Boulevard, where the officer saw the teenage suspect remove property from the suspect vehicle and get into a nearby vehicle, police said. According to the police statement, the officer recognized the vehicle as associated with a “prolific auto burglar” identified as 27-year-old San Francisco resident Robert Sonza.
San Francisco Police Department
According to police, officers chased the car and used a spike strip to puncture its tires, but the car continued to flee at a high rate of speed until it crashed at Piedmont and Pleasant Valley avenues in Oakland. Both Sonza and the juvenile suspect ran from the scene but were arrested a short time later, the affidavit said.
The first suspect vehicle involved in the car break-ins at the Palace of Fine Arts and Alamo Square was found to be stolen, and a search of the car turned up burglary tools and property from another car break-in near the Palace of Fine Arts on Sept. 2, police said. The second suspect vehicle also had stolen property inside, along with a firearm, police said, and the recovered property was reunited with multiple car break-in victims.
Souza was charged with receiving stolen property, accessory after the fact, resisting arrest, conspiracy and carrying a loaded firearm, among other weapons charges.
The juvenile suspect was cited for auto theft, receiving stolen property, second-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools and resisting arrest. He was released to parental supervision, police said.
“The hard work and dedication of our patrol officers, sergeants and investigators at this incident resulted in a 56 percent decrease in vehicle burglaries over the past year,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said in a prepared statement. “The acts committed by this suspect were not a crime of opportunity, but a deliberate plan to target visitors to popular tourist destinations. Despite the suspects’ dangerous and evasive driving, SFPD personnel continued their remote surveillance in the interest of public safety and took the suspect and his accomplice, a known, prolific auto burglar, into custody.”
Police are asking anyone with information about the incidents to call the department’s tip line at (415) 575-4444 or text TIP411 and begin the text with SFPD.
