Burglary duo arrested
Robert Messersmith
A burglary victim received unusually swift justice last week.
Officers were taking a Redondo Beach man’s theft report at the very same time detectives serving a search warrant in Torrance had found a large cache of stolen goods – including property just stolen from that man’s residence. Torrance police arrested two male suspects.
“Literally, at the same time that call is going through dispatch, the officer serving the search warrant was standing there looking at the stuff stolen from that guy’s residence,” said Redondo Beach Police Department Sgt. Shawn Freeman.
The two men are believed to have committed a rash of burglaries in the South Bay and across Southern California. Robert Messersmith, 31, of Torrance, and William Fulton Jr., 30, of Hawthorne were arrested during the July 21 service of a search warrant. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office has since filed multiple theft and weapon violation charges against both men.
Detectives have recovered a large amount of stolen goods – ranging from construction equipment to home electronics and bicycles – and are now searching for potential victims of burglaries who can now recover their property. Some of the property has already been matched to recent crime reports and returned to victims. Police have already identified a half dozen burglaries they believe the men did locally.
William Fulton.
A large amount of recovered property including construction tools and equipment, some jewelry and sporting goods still remains unclaimed. A link has been set up on the RBPD website at Redondo.org/depts./police with photos of 127 items that have been recovered.
Freeman said that the arrests represented “good old-fashioned police work.” Investigators aggressively pursued a citizen tip and obtained a search warrant that subsequently solved several cases.
“It’s awesome, it really is,” Freeman said. “One of the great things, especially because there are so many property crimes, is being able to call up a victim and say, ‘We’ve got your stuff back.’ Because when you get something stolen, when someone comes inside your house and steals from you – that’s a huge thing…It’s that dread of having lost something and feeling you’ll never be able to get it back.”
The items include a professional BBQ, watches, stereos, and construction equipment that appear to have been taken from a work site.
“If you are in the construction business, tools are your life,” Freeman said. “So basically that is somebody’s livelihood we are able to give back to them.”
Perhaps most significantly, police believe the arrests will prevent an untold amount of future crime from a duo who appears to have been professional, fulltime burglars, focused on the South Bay.
“These two guys are off the streets,” Freeman said. “Hopefully they get prison terms that will keep them away and keep them from being able breaking into people’s houses, so when people go to work they can come home and expect to see their all their stuff, as they should. That is what is really nice about it.”
Victims who believe that their property is among the items depicted on the police website should contact RBPD’s Crimetips line at (310) 937-6685 or crimetips@redondo.org and leave a detailed message for investigators. Owners of the property must present documentation or other information to verify their ownership. ER