'Car piling' crackdown
Citizens aid police nabbing burglars

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — After a recent rash of burglaries, Gallup Police are cracking down.

They nabbed five burglars and would-be burglars in less than two weeks.

Gallup Police Detective Sgt. Matt Wright said that following an unusually high number of thefts last year, burglaries came to a near standstill after police nabbed five teenagers outside Gallup Catholic School Jan. 6.

“After the Cathedral arrests everything stopped for about a month,” Wright said. “Then all of a sudden we got a new rash of them.”

Lately cars have been burgled more often than homes. One suspect arrested April 10 and interviewed by Det. Anthony Seciwa, Eli Hannah, 26, said he chose Gallup because people here don’t pay attention, according to Seciwa.

“He said in Albuquerque he’d get shot,” Seciwa said.

Wright said the majority of cars burgled have been unlocked, showing no signs of forced entry.

“It was Easter Sunday, and I went to the car and it was pretty devastating,” Mary Garcia, one of several victims who emerged from a car-burglary spree April 12, said Monday. “I had went home late (the night before) and was really tired, so I left my purse in there,”

The contents had been scattered across the front seat; her glove compartment was still open and had been ransacked.

“At first I thought it was just me, then I heard they had done it up and down my street,” Garcia said. “I had to go to report it to the police, then I had to order a new driver’s license, social security card. I had to change all my checking accounts and bank accounts. I canceled everything! It was very inconvenient and I really felt invaded. I changed everything right away, the next day actually. I had to miss work ... I just had all kinds of fun.”

Frank Morales, 19, and Paul Matasani, 20, were caught early Monday morning by an off-duty police officer while flipping door handles along Yei Avenue. Each was charged with attempting to commit a felony and could face a year in prison.

It’s called “car piling,” Wright explained, because once they are in your car, they quickly pile anything of value in their arms, and then flee.

Wright said he first heard the term last summer after the arrest of two 17-year-old “car-pilers,” who were caught burglarizing cars on the 200 block of Cedar Street; Bryan Peterson and Seth Fitzjerrell were nabbed by an attentive neighbor about 2 a.m. July 23, 2008. After calling police, the neighbor punched each boy in the face and told him to sit down and wait.

More recently Chris Martinez was a victim.

“I went out to get in my truck to get to work and they had emptied the console,” Martinez, whose truck was broken into April 16, said Monday. “They took all my CD’s, even my junk! ... It was weird, just a bunch of junk that had been there forever.”

Martinez also owns a 78 jeep, which he uses mostly for recreation, and it had been burgled, too.

“There was a survival kit, binoculars ... stuff that I take camping and have it in there in case I need it,” Martinez said. “I guess they needed it.”

Recent busts have been made thanks to citizens, Wright said Monday.

For example, a witness at Sagebrush apartments tipped police while a car burglary was in progress April 20. The witness heard a car running outside her apartment about 1 a.m. She also heard a car door open and shut, without first hearing an apartment door open and shut. When she looked outside she saw a group of teenagers, one of them wearing a 49ers jersey. She watched the boy in the jersey reach into a green Pontiac, his hand silhouetted against the dome light, according to Gallup Police Officer Charles Steele’s incident report.

The owner of the Pontiac later told police she had nothing of value in the car, that nothing was stolen. But for unlawfully entering the car, the boy in the jersey, 17-year-old Fernando Segovia, was booked at McKinley County Juvenile Detention Center on one count of burglary.

“On several of these the suspects were called in by citizens in the area,” Wright said. “We appreciate their help.”

Anyone with information about a burglary may contact Crimestoppers, which is offering up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.

Crimestoppers in Gallup can be reached at (505) 722-6161.