Los Angeles detectives have arrested a serial burglar seen on surveillance video prowling a downtown Los Angeles loft with a woman, authorities said Tuesday.
Tommie Scott, 50, was arrested in connection with the March 31 crime at the Biscuit Company Lofts after he was detained by sheriff’s deputies investigating a lead on another crime — that he possessed stolen Chinese coins.
The deputies stopped him April 2 near Central Avenue and Gage Street and found the rare coins in his pocket, along with a cellphone. Deputies Sean Shaw and Mark King suspected the phone had been stolen and called numbers on it until they located the owner, a downtown restaurateur whose phone had been stolen March 31 from a back office, said Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The deputies urged the restaurateur to file a crime report with the LAPD. When he did, Det. Kyle Remolino called Shaw and realized that the suspect’s description matched the man they were looking for. He asked about the copper-colored Avalanche seen at the lofts on surveillance video, and the deputies said they were looking at the sport-utility vehicle as Remolino described it over the phone.
“We got more than we ever expected on this case, thanks to the work of deputies Shaw and King,” Vernon said. “We will clear the attempted burglary at the lofts and the theft from the restaurant, and maybe a few more.”
LAPD detectives planned to interview the 35-year-old woman seen in the video with Scott, but they did not expect to file any charges against her. Vernon said Scott is a prolific burglar who was on parole for burglary when the deputies arrested him for receiving stolen property.
Because he was on parole, he was being held without bail.
“Scott was more of an office creeper than a cat burglar,” Vernon said. “He’d walk into open businesses and steal whatever he could get his hands on. If fact, he mistook the lofts for business suites.”
— Richard Winton