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Four teenagers were arrested in Manhattan Beach this week after police found nearly 100 stolen sideview mirrors in their car following a traffic stop. City News Service reports that 19-year-olds Marissa Cardosa, Kevin Martinez and Juan Villalvazo, along with 18-year-old Abraham Negrete, were arrested around 2:50 a.m. Thursday after they were pulled over for a traffic violation. Inside the car, the officer found 95 side-view mirrors.
Detective Shawn Thompson told the Daily Breeze, "A majority of (the mirrors) were in the trunk. Some of them were in the back seat."
As the Daily Breeze, notes, this week saw multiple listings of mirror thefts in South Bay crime blotters (characterized by the paper as a "five-day crime wave"). Apparently, the mirrors can cost hundreds of dollars to be replaced, and the thieves can make money from selling the stolen property. On their Facebook page, the El Segundo Police Department urged residents whose mirrors might have been stolen to call them—they might have your mirrors!
According to City News Service, Martinez and Villalvazo are both being held on $20,000 bail before they're arraigned in Torrance on Tuesday (those must have been some expensive mirrors!). No word on the bail set for Cardosa and Negrete.
