A man suspected of burglarizing multiple homes for sale in West LA may have been operating in Orange County in June.
Real estate agent Amy Simms said she recognized the man after seeing news reports that shared surveillance video of the alleged thief in action during open houses in LA.
“My stomach dropped and I got chills and I knew immediately it’s like, Oh my God, that's him, now he’s in LA,” Simms said.
According to Simms, she came face to face with a well-dressed man in his 30s when she found him crouching in the closet of an open house in June.
“I said, ‘can I help you’ kind of abruptly and when he stood up I went, ‘oh gosh, I should back out,’" Simms said.
Simms felt that something wasn’t right, but acted normally and made small talk with the man about the home she was showing. She used her cell phone to capture images of the man just in case.
“I wanted to have photos to make sure that, one if I died, they'd know who did it and two, if he was in fact stealing something, that I had his face,” Simms said.
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Simms said the man left in a black Inifiti and that she found he had hidden an iPad and may have stolen jewelry from the home.
The man has been described as Asian, 5 foot 10 inches, weighing about 170 pounds, with short hair and wearing glasses.
Detectives believe the man has knowledge of or is associated with the real estate industry.
