Two masked thieves lugged a 700-pound gun safe out of a Garden Grove home as neighbors were trick-or-treating on Halloween, stealing approximately $240,000 worth of valuables.
On the evening of Thursday, Oct. 31, a Garden Grove couple attending a Halloween event in Orange received a call from their alarm company around 8:51 p.m., notifying them that their front door alarm was off. As they prepared to leave, 45-year-old Peter Lee said he noticed his car had a flat tire on his front right passenger side, which left them stranded.
When Lee realized the security cameras inside his home were also offline, he called the police and asked his neighbors to check on his home.
“Lo and behold, they told me I’m getting burglarized,” Lee said. “I was distraught.”
Two men wearing black hoodies and masks entered the gated community in the 13400 block of Gardenia Avenue and cut power to the residence before forcing entry into the home and stealing the safe. They fled the area in a dark gray Chrysler Pacifica with no plates, according to the Garden Grove Police Department.
Lee later learned the thieves had followed closely behind as he drove from his home to the Halloween event, where they slashed his tire, before heading back to his house to burglarize it. They turned off the main power to the home and pried the front door open “like butter”, before stealing bags, jewelry, and watches from his wife’s closet. The thieves then drove a minivan to the front of the home and pulled out a dolly, which they used to lug the 5-foot 700-pound gun safe into the van.
After thieves turned off the main power to the home, they pried the front door open “like butter”, before stealing bags, jewelry, and watches from the upstairs closet. (Courtesy of Peter Lee)
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“They’re so loud and clumsy. They’re pushing this thing across the sidewalk making all this noise,” he said.
Lee said some of his neighbors were going on nightly walks and a few people were still trick or treating as the thieves scraped the large safe down the sidewalk in plain sight. No one noticed, he said, until he messaged his neighbors — but by then it was too late.
“We lost everything. We lost valuables, jewelry, bags, watches, cash, collectible items. I lost my entire gun collection,” Lee said.
The total loss of stolen good was approximately $240,000, according to Lee.
The homeowner is offering a reward of $15,000 for information that leads to an arrest or recovery of stolen items. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Detective Baker at 714-741-5837.