Three men are responsible for back-to-back burglaries at two Irvine companies over the weekend that netted them $500,000 in high-end sunglasses, headsets, laptops and virtual reality equipment, officials said.
The first burglary took place at 7 a.m. on Saturday at a store in an industrial area on Irvine Center Drive and Tesla, said Kim Mohr, an Irvine Police Department spokeswoman. Mohr said the three men drove in a stolen white van into the roll-up door of the undisclosed company warehouse, used a crowbar to force their way in and stole $400,000.
The next day, the same thieves returned again at 7 a.m. to a nearby gaming store and took $100,000, police said. They pulled off the second heist the same way they pulled off the first one, using the same van that had the same license plate number -- 46712W1, said Mohr.
Security camera video from inside one of the businesses showed one burglar climb into a fenced-in storage area. The man then tossed boxes of merchandise to an accomplice on the other side of the fence.
At one point, the man repeatedly failed to get a box over a fence, finally leaving it to go in search of other items.
The men were described as wearing hooded sweatshirts. One had "California" printed across the chest. He had yellow gloves, red pants and red shoes with white laces. Another man had a gray and black hooded sweatshirt with dark pants, black shoes and black gloves. The third man shirt had a tan horizontal pattern on the chest. He also had red gloves and jeans.
"This is a high priority case for us," Mohr said.
Anyone with information on the case is advised to call Detective Matt Ricci at (949) 724-7189.
