Ventura County Sheriff's Department

Location: Sage Publications- 2400 block of Teller Road, Newbury Park, CA.
Date & Time/ RB#: Feb. 4, 2009 / 9:30 a.m. / 09-1260
Unit Responsible: Thousand Oaks Police Department-East County Property Crimes Unit

(S)uspects, (V)ictims, (W)itnesses, Address, Age
(S) Hernandez, Jose G., Simi Valley, 46
(S) Hernandez, Risa, Simi Valley, 38

Investigators from the Thousand Oaks Police Department and Ventura County Sheriff’s Department concluded an investigation of a theft from a publishing company in Newbury Park. Detectives arrested a Simi Valley couple, Jose and Risa Hernandez, for stealing and selling thousands of books from Sage Publications, a publishing company based in Newbury Park.

Sage Publications recently filed a grand theft report with the Thousand Oaks Police Department after noticing thousands of books were missing from storage containers outside the company’s warehouse. The thefts occurred over a period of at least 18 months. The stolen books had been placed in bins intended for a recycling company, which contracted with Sage Publications to properly dispose of the books. Instead, Jose Hernandez removed the books without permission and ran an Internet-based business selling the used books to customers around the country.

Many of the books were in mint condition, but were being sent to the recycler due to such factors as minor defects, changes requested by the author, or in cases where a new edition was published, and there was a surplus of the previous edition.

The business being run by Jose and Risa Hernandez was undercutting the legitimate sales of new Sage books through their network of authorized retailers. Selling the stolen books yielded a tremendous profit margin for the couple’s business. The couple did not have permission from Sage to either take the books or resell them.

During search warrants served at the Hernadez’ home and warehouse, detectives recovered more than 23,000 books that were identified as the property of Sage Publications in Newbury Park. The seized books had an estimated resale value in excess of $1.1 million.

Jose and Risa Hernandez were booked at the Ventura County Jail for grand theft and possession of stolen property. The couple are currently out of custody on bail bond, and the case is pending in Ventura County Superior Court.