GPS Tracking Device Helps Catch Perfume Thieves

Burbank police officers are happy to report that two suspects have both been arrested less than an hour after they attempted to steal expensive items from a Burbank beauty store. Mariel Miranda-Guerra and Giovanni Lopez-Valencia have been charged with burglary and grand theft. They are being detained at the Burbank city jail on a $250,000 bail.

The two suspects decided to break into Ulta Beauty at Victory Plaza at around midnight on May 5th. The male and female pair smashed one of the store’s front windows, and the couple grabbed thousands of dollars’ worth of perfume from the establishment’s displays. When the window was breached, a security alarm went off at the store which prompted Burbank police officers to respond. When they arrived on scene, the couple had already fled with the expensive merchandise.

Thankfully, responding police officers determined that a number of the expensive perfume bottles had tiny and discreet GPS trackers attached to them. The officers quickly utilized the establishment’s GPS systems to pinpoint the location of some of the stolen goods. Upon determining a location, police jumped into a Los Angeles police department helicopter to descend on the suspect’s location.

In the wee hours of the morning, police caught up with both the male and female suspects in Canoga Park. Investigators successfully recovered the stolen Ulta perfume, and they also found common burglary tools inside the couple’s vehicle. Incredibly, the couple was able to steal or destroy perfume valued at more than $19,000.

The Burbank Police Department has confirmed that the GPS tracking device attached to the perfume bottles was instrumental in catching these two thieves. Without the explicit location of the suspects, it is very unlikely that the police would be able to track down the suspects within the hour.

Unfortunately, too many burglary cases go unsolved because stolen merchandise quickly becomes untraceable or sold on the black market. In recent years, security cameras have greatly improved the police’s ability to track down suspects, but police are often forced to rely on the public to identify suspects using this method. New GPS devices, on the other hand, can now lead police straight to the suspect and the stolen goods.

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