Palm Springs prowler: Police search for man on onewheel skateboard
Update (7/12/22):
The prowler has been arrested. Police announced they arrested a 31-year-old man. He faces four counts of burglary and a parole violation.
More Details: Police arrest one-wheeled bandit accused of several break-ins in Palm Springs
Police continue their search for a Palm Springs prowler, who’s been seen lurking through several neighborhoods and homes over the last couple of weeks.
Police said the suspect has committed several of the burglaries shirtless. He's also been seen using an electric "Onewheel" electric skateboard as transportation.
The suspect was captured on several home surveillance systems.
“You do definitely feel a little bit violated,” said resident Jim Reagan.
It was 5:30am when Reagan got a Ring alert on his phone. “Just as I was looking at the video, I realized this is happening right now.”
That’s when he realized an intruder was lurking inside his garage. “He knew what he was doing. He knew what he was looking for. And he was, you know, I looked at the timestamp on the videos, and he was here for all of one minute," Reagan explained.
He said the prowler got in through a window that was being repaired. “He saw an opportunity and so often these crimes are crimes of opportunity, and he saw one and he crawled through.”
And despite having a security set up and cameras along the front yard, “he knew that there was a camera there and that he was being videoed, but he still did it.”
Reagan knew he wasn’t the only one experiencing this. “My guess is this guy was not looking to intrude on just my house, probably someone else in the neighborhood was gonna get hit too.”
After speaking with Palm Springs police, they say they’ve been working with the community to catch the one wheeled bandit.
“It was several locations and after we shared it on social media, we got information from different users of the platform that they had seen them at different locations. So we're still actively trying to identify who the suspect is,” said Lieutenant Gustavo Araiza.
Although he’s just been seen lurking on properties, police say it’s a usually what they do to plan out their next steps. “You might have somebody trespassing and kind of scoping out for a future offense. So it's important to be mindful of these different alerts that you have going on.
Since January, Palm Springs has seen more than 350 reported burglaries. A majority of them were reported as vehicle thefts.
Police say before leaving your car, be sure to bring in any valuables you may have, including that garage key, before leaving and locking your doors.
“A lot of the residential burglaries we deal with, we realize that there was no identified method of entry into the residence," Araiza added, "So a lot of times that's maybe an unlocked door and unlocked windows. So we just want to encourage our community to harden that target by the sake of maybe having a routine or during the evening before they retire for bed, is go through the property and make sure everything's secure."
Palm Springs police are actively working with the community to identify the bandit.
He is described as a white or Hispanic male, 5 feet, 8 inches to 6 feet tall, weighing about 180lbs, with an athletic physique and no observable tattoos.
If you have any information related to this incident you are asked to contact Detective Alex Doherty at 760-323 8142 or alexander.doherty@palmspringsca.gov.
