Three men were arrested for allegedly stealing high-valued tools from a business in Rancho Mirage and committing similar crimes throughout California for several months, authorities said Thursday.
Feliciano Gonzales, 40, of Perris, 35-year-old Eric Arias of Colton and 41-year-old Felipe Chavez of San Bernardino were arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of commercial burglary, conspiracy, grand theft, and organized retail theft, according to Sgt. Chris Gelinas of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Gelinas said deputies responded at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday to a report of a theft in progress involving multiple suspects at a business in the 34200 block of Monterey Avenue.
“The suspects were inside the store cutting locked cages and filling up large trash cans with high-valued tools,” Gelinas wrote in a statement. “Deputies surrounded the business and took all the suspects into custody.”
The three suspects, who are also suspected in similar crimes throughout the state, were all booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, according to Gelinas.
Gonzales and Arias remain held on $1 million bail bonds, according to inmate records. No jail information was immediately available on Chavez.
Anyone with information on the burglaries was asked to call Deputy Cody Mayer with the Palm Desert Sheriff Station’s Rancho Mirage Special Enforcement Team at 760-836-1633.