Brothers arrested in connection with HobbyTown burglary

Two brothers have been arrested in connection with a burglary earlier this week at a hobby store, police said Thursday.

A review of surveillance video of the burglary — which occurred at about 4:40 a.m. Wednesday at HobbyTown, near Kellogg and Rock Road — yielded a vehicle description that officers in Patrol North recognized, Lt. James Espinoza said. They went to a residence that was home to a van resembling the description hours after the burglary and waited for the owners to leave.

Once the van’s owner was driving, the officers followed until he committed a traffic infraction and then pulled him over, Espinoza said. The driver, a 54-year-old man, was arrested for driving with a suspended license.

While they were talking to the driver and his passenger, the officers observed “in plain sight” a radio-controlled vehicle in its box with a HobbyTown sticker on the outside of the box, Espinoza said. The passenger, a 64-year-old man who is the driver’s older brother, was taken downtown for questioning and eventually arrested on suspicion of burglary and theft.

Officers went to the house where they found the van and obtained permission to come inside and look around, Espinoza said. Once they did, they discovered 14 other remote-controlled cars inside.

At least a dozen radio-controlled vehicles had been stolen earlier Wednesday from HobbyTown, with a combined value of $7,200. The cars found inside the house were still inside their boxes with HobbyTown stickers on them, Espinoza said.

“It’s a great job by officers — good, thorough work,” he said.

Police then obtained a search warrant and conducted a more thorough search of the house, Espinoza said. They also found evidence linked to a number of other burglaries from last year — including multiple liquor store burglaries in which the suspects used crow bars or other means to force open front doors and fill trash barrels with liquor bottles.

“We’ve had several over the past year” matching that method of operation, Espinoza said, and investigators are looking to see whether the brothers are responsible for at least some of them.

This story was originally published March 5, 2015 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Brothers arrested in connection with HobbyTown burglary."