The hunt for the thief who had committed more than a dozen burglaries in homes throughout the San Rafael area ended successfully on Wednesday afternoon, thanks to the vigilance of local residents.
At 1:45 p.m., according to a department press release, residents living in the 300 block of Mountain View Drive noticed an unfamiliar man with a backpack near a neighbor’s home. Police received several calls reporting that the man had approached the backyard and giving his description.
Several neighbors on this San Rafael street noticed the intruder, which led to his quick arrest.
When officers arrived at the home and surrounded the premises, they noticed that a rear sliding door had been left open. They were able to arrest the suspect, later identified as 28-year-old San Rafael resident Phillip Daniel Ercolini, after he left the house through the front door. A short distance away, police recovered property that had been stolen from the home, as well as a handgun that had been reported stolen in a separate residential burglary.
Ercolini did not resist the officers and confessed to over a dozen burglaries in the area within the past month. Police are working on tracing the property they have recovered as a result of this arrest back to the victims, according to Corporal Justin Graham of the San Rafael Police Department. Graham reported that the total value of the property recoved was not being disclosed at this time and that “the items that were taken consisted [largely] of jewelry and currency.”
While Ercolini has been transported to Marin County Jail and charged with burglary, possession of stolen property, and carrying a stolen firearm, his arrest does not account for all of the more than thirty burglaries that have taken place in San Rafael just this summer, according to Graham: “We’ve solved a good amount of burglaries but we have some outstanding cases that we’d like to resolve as well… Obviously a dozen is just a portion of that number,” he said, stressing that residents continue to be vigilant, secure their valuables, and keep windows and doors locked.
Read More:
San Rafael Patch: Neighbors Help San Rafael Police Catch Alleged Burglar in the Act
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