Man accused of burglarizing Palm Desert home in broad daylight

A man who broke into a Palm Desert home in broad daylight on Columbus Day was arrested by officers three days later, according to the Palm Desert Police Department.

The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Eduardo Espinoza from Cathedral City. The Palm Desert Burglary Suppression Team arrested Espinoza on October 15 in Palm Desert, officers said in the release.

According to Deputy Armando Munoz with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the suspect broke into the small home on Elkhorn Trail near California Avenue around 11:15 a.m.

The man living in the home, Robert Echevarria, told News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 he was sleeping when he heard loud banging on his door.

“I was hearing all these name callings and ‘Come out here now.’ He was breaking my window and trying to attack the door, and he finally broke the door in,” he said. “I had to jump out the window fast as I could and leave. I was in boxers and I had to run like that.”

Echevarria said a landscaper told him the suspect got away in a red car. He said there have been more break-ins in the neighborhood in recent weeks.

“That’s all there is out here in the desert, nothing but negativity. I don’t dedicate my life to that. I wish others the best, that’s all I can say,” said Echavarria, wearing a t-shirt and banana-laden board shorts his mom had to drive to him, since he ran out of his home in boxers.

He says people stole his mother’s clothes out of the facility’s laundromat last week, and a neighbor had his car stereo stolen.

Deputies searched the home with K9 officers and guns drawn, but were unable to locate the suspect until a few days later. Espinoza was booked into the Riverside County Jail in Indio on charges of burglary, making criminal threats and felony vandalism.

If you have any additional information regarding the burglary, you’re asked to call Corporal Lopez with the Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station at 760-836-1674.