The scene was so unusual that police had to stop and take photos.
In June, police investigating a series of residential burglaries in downtown Los Angeles encountered the suspects as they attempted a daring escape.
When police searched a seventh-floor apartment and walked to the apartment balcony, they found the suspects — who were huddled on an adjacent balcony, trying to stay out of sight.
“Detectives quickly realized that four suspects…were being tightly roped across a narrow ledge and onto an adjacent apartment balcony!” Burbank police wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of the men crouching under a balcony railing with the label “suspects” and an arrow pointing toward them.
Burbank investigators had been investigating a burglary that led them to serve a search warrant at a downtown Los Angeles apartment, the department said in the post.
Eventually, authorities arrested six people believed to be connected to the South American theft ring.
Over the past few years, waves of foreigners have traveled to the United States on tourist visas and broken into homes in wealthy neighborhoods in what police call “burglary tourism.” These individuals use rental properties as a base of operations and use highly sophisticated methods to gain entry into homes, including using jamming devices to interfere with security surveillance equipment that uses Wi-Fi signals and surveillance cameras to monitor residents’ daily lives.
Evidence of a burglary in which the suspect was caught on a seventh-floor balcony.
(Burbank Police Department)
The Burbank Police Department did not release the names of the four suspects they found on the balcony, but said they had been renting the apartment that was searched.
Inside the unit, detectives found jewelry, cash and handbags. They also impounded three vehicles. Images shared by police showed empty bags next to several pairs of shoes, various forms of foreign currency and a blender used to make “pink cocaine.” Authorities said the items linked the suspect to five burglaries in Burbank, Monterey Park and Chino Hills.
The suspect was arrested and booked for burglary and receiving stolen property, according to authorities.
In an unrelated case in May, seven Colombian nationals were arrested in Arizona on suspicion of burglaries in Burbank and other Southern California cities. The suspects have been linked to burglaries in California, Oregon and Washington state.
Scottsdale Police Officer Aaron Bolin said a female member of the group used a dog as cover and walked a stolen French bulldog to blend in with the community and act as a lookout.
The pit bull was taken by the gang during a break-in in California and was among the stolen items seized, according to Scottsdale police.
Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
