LaredoBuzz.Com

Courtesy Joe Baeza, 

On October 11, 2010 right before 3 am a TacoTote Restaurant located adjacent to Mall del Norte on San Dario was broken into and robbed of an estimated $13,000.  The break in was captured by surveillance footage inside the office of the establishment.  The lone burglar broke one of the back windows of the restaurant with a baseball bat and entered the building.  The burglar came prepared complete with gloves to avoid prints, and a backpack to steal his loot.  The burglar is then seen retrieving a piece of paper from his pocket then reading from it as he is attempting to open the combination of the safe.  After several failed attempts the crook gets desperate and is seen calling an accomplice from his cell phone.  The suspect is then seen placing the phone on top of the safe and speaking via speaker phone with whoever talked him through the safe opening process.  Eventually the suspect is successful and manages to open the safe.  A malfunctioning business alarm bought the suspect all the time he needed. 

  The suspect then empties the safe contents into his backpack.  The suspect has so much time that he actually takes a picture of his earnings with what appears to be a disposable camera.  He then collects his things and walks out of the office and out of view.  The crook moments later returns to the office and looks around for the piece of paper that had the combination he had with him.  After rummaging through the debris from the safe he very calmly exists from the office for the last time.  On Monday the 11^th the Laredo Police Department releases the surveillance footage to the local media in the hopes of developing leads.  Meanwhile, detectives not sitting around, brought in all possible employees who may have had access to the safe.  After being read their rights one Assistant Manager identified as Adriana Indacochea, age 28, voluntarily confessed to knowing the suspect on the video and also to giving him the combination of the safe.  Adriana then gave police the names of the participants of the caper who included her brother in-law identified as Jaime Alberto Santos, 19 years old.  The actual burglar was identified as David Eduardo Garcia Jr., age 19.  Garcia having seen himself on the evening news goes out that same Monday night and gets his “soul patch” beard shaved and also drastically cuts his hair short to avoid being identified.  Detectives arrested the trio and charged them with burglary of building and theft of property.  LPD Crimes against Property recovered what was left of the stolen money which was approximately $6,400 in currency.  The trio had already gone shopping with their stolen earnings and spent several thousand dollars.  Detectives recovered an assortment of items that the trio bought with the stolen proceeds which included tennis shoes, a jacket, and even lingerie which were logged in as evidence at LPD.  Each individual was held on a $60,000 bond.