Cowboy hat-wearing man arrested for DHS burglary
A man arrested for residential burglary in Desert Hot Springs over the weekend remained behind bars Monday morning.
At 10:42 a.m. Sunday, Desert Hot Springs Police Department officers responded to a home on the 10000 block of Verbena Drive for a report of a burglary in progress/tripped audible burglary alarm.
According to the homeowner, a white male adult wearing a cowboy hat was observed through the home’s surveillance system attempting to break into the residence. When officers arrived, they found the suspect, later identified as 55-year-old Gregory Gaw, attempting to crawl out of a window in the home.
Gaw reportedly spotted the responding officers and went back into the residence and refused to come out. A short time later, members of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s K-9 unit, as well as a California Highway Patrol helicopter, responded to the scene, then Gaw fled into the desert, according to a DHSPD news release.
A short foot pursuit followed and then Gaw was taken into custody at 11:17 a.m., according to county jail records. He faces one felony count of first-degree burglary and one misdemeanor count of possession of burglary tools.
He is being held in Indio Jail on $35,000 bail. He is set to appear in court at the Larson Justice Center in Indio on August 28.
