Ventura County Sheriff's Department

Location: 1500 block of Serrano Avenue, Los Angeles, Ca.
Date & Time/ RB#: Oct. 14, 2009 @ 4:00 p.m. / 09-21350
Unit Responsible: Thousand Oaks Police Department Detective Bureau

(S)uspects, (V)ictims, (W)itnesses Address Age
(S) Romero, Adan Los Angeles 60

A Los Angeles man was arrested Wednesday after a four-month investigation led to him being identified as the suspect responsible for dozens of purse snatches in Ventura and Los Angeles County.

Investigators arrested Adan Romero while serving a search warrant at his apartment. Romero began targeting elderly victims at Thousand Oaks shopping centers, where he would pretend to shop and then grab a victim’s wallet from her purse while she was looking at merchandise.

Many of the thefts were captured on surveillance video, but Romero was not identified until a witness followed him outside a store and wrote down the license number of Romero’s van. Since June of 2009, Romero has committed 17 of these thefts in Thousand Oaks, three in Simi Valley, eight in Agoura Hills, and nine in the Crescenta Valley.

Romero has an extensive criminal history in four different states. He is also a previously deported convicted felon.

Romero has used 20 different names and dates of birth during previous contacts with law enforcement agencies.

Romero is currently in custody at the Pre-Trial Detention Facility in Ventura. He is not eligible for bail, due to an immigration hold. He is facing multiple counts of burglary, grand theft, financial elder abuse, and petty theft.