Surveillance video shows suspected vehicle burglars in the act at St. George home

ST. GEORGE — A St. George man says he and some of his neighbors had their vehicles burglarized early Friday morning, and he has surveillance footage to prove it.

At approximately 3:30 a.m. on the south block of 1970 East, a motion-activated camera captured what appears to be two young men or boys opening or attempting to open the doors of a Jeep and a truck.

Surveillance footage shows an individual opening the door of a Jeep during an alleged burglary in St. George, Utah, May 18, 2018 | Image courtesy of Jose Gonzales, St. George News

“I’m pretty sure they were checking every single car on the street,” said Jose Gonzales, the homeowner whose surveillance camera caught the alleged burglars in the act.

Gonzales told St. George News he has no idea who the suspects are, one of whom is seen opening and closing the door to Gonzales’ Jeep in separate clips of video from the motion-activated camera.

See the clips in the media player top of this report.

Whoever it was allegedly took a jump box and a pair of headphones with a combined value of approximately $350, Gonzales said.

Police received a report of the burglary at Gonzales’ residence, St. George Police officer Lona Trombley said.

While only one report had been filed with police as of Friday afternoon, Gonzales said one of his neighbors also had a backpack stolen from her car, and another neighbor said money and belongings were taken from their vehicle.

“You can see one of the kids go to my neighbor’s truck and try to open it,” Gonzales said, referring to the footage, “and he’s not able to open it and he just walks away.”

This comes on the heels of 11 vehicle burglaries recently reported in Hurricane in a single day. Police said all of the cars involved were not locked.

Read more: 1 car stolen, 11 more burglarized in Hurricane in a single day

Anyone who has information about Friday morning’s vehicle burglaries in St. George is asked to contact the St. George Police Department at 435-627-4300.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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12 Comments

  • comments May 18, 2018 at 10:39 pm

    I don’t understand why you people leave your cars unlocked. hmm…

    • comments May 18, 2018 at 10:41 pm

      lock the car and don’t leave anything that looks like it could be of any value visible from the windows. This is basic idiot stuff for anyone with common sense. Again, this is not the close knit little LDS “community” it was 20-30 years ago.

      • Law24 May 19, 2018 at 2:58 am

        Yep. I sometimes have to travel to less desirable areas of the Salt Lake valley. When I do, I hide all auxiliary cables, charging cables, coins, paperwork, etc. I try to make my vehicle as least interesting and enticing (ie not worth the effort) as possible. Oh, and I always lock it/arm the security system. I haven’t had an issue yet.

        • comments May 19, 2018 at 3:42 pm

          Some places they’ll smash your window if they see a lose dime on the floor. In some cities smash and grab is so bad people will leave their cars unlocked, and leave a little bribe for the thief/vandal in the form of some loose change or a candybar. It’s the car owner’s way of pleading with the criminal: “please take this small offering and don’t vandalize my car”.

  • Striker4 May 18, 2018 at 10:55 pm

    LOL……here we go again folks….this story has nothing to do with religion and yet the self proclaimed legal expert Prophet Bob figures out a way to involve the LDS church.

    • comments May 19, 2018 at 3:26 pm

      Yea, Dumpy, a passing reference that is actually complimenting them in the context I used it.

  • asianspa May 19, 2018 at 10:02 am

    These problems are only going to get worse and are socioeconomic criminal effects due to the lack of economic planning and leadership within the area. The leadership has constantly repressed competitive business from coming into the area for fear their personal margins would suffer and they might have to pay an extra buck. So you got working poor working multiple jobs and nobody seems to be watching or raising their kids . You have dumbed down kids that see no point in working or moving their lives forward with an empty wage slave local system, and unfortunately are too dumb to realize there are other more hopeful options beyond the area.

    There was an interesting meeting at our local church that a family member was invited to… the jist was this… They are losing members locally and the youth are not moving out of parents houses while also not going to church anymore. They referred to this as “failure to launch” , They are not going to substain current local membership or financial numbers in tithes and fast offerings as their older members locally pass away. They were bringing people together to basicly go and talk to these kids within the stake but nobody really wanted to talk about the REAL issue here. It is a failed idea all around as they are trying to have 60+ year old ladies come and talk to mid 20’s kids that are fallen away from the church while living at home. They obviously don’t understand psychology very well because some random 60 year old babbling away cliches and empty half hearted invites at a 20 or 30 something is NOT exactly going to turn these kids magically around. Many were in and out of purgatory.

    WIth a 45% poverty rate in Washington County the predominant churches need to start rallying their leaders to do just that and lead as their membership and financials will suffer. We manage and scrutinize our zoning and building , when are we going to step up and realize being an economic blackhole for the working poor is NOT a great long term path to be on and won’t sustain the family values based culture that everybody seems to think they have in this area.

    • comments May 19, 2018 at 1:34 pm

      It most def is an absolute failure of leadership combined with incessant greed of same leadership and business owners. It is political failure on an absolute level. Simply leaders who care nothing about the people they are supposed to represent. There are a few exceptions, but these creatures mostly look out for crony businesses and their own interests $$$. Keeping millennials clinging to mormonism is another issue, as so many of them feel that the religion and the culture is just a bunch of total BS. It often leaves a hole in their direction of morality bc their parents remain hardcore mormon LDS tithe payers and churchgoers, while the children are left to find their own direction in life–often that ends up with them on drugs, or a worst case scenario of suicide. Mormonism is no longer providing what a place like this needs to have a healthy social and economic dynamic. It doesn’t fit the needs of many many people. I believe it, if it hasn’t already, will evolve into nothing but a detriment to this local society. Other religions are not much if even better at all. I’ve paid visit to many church services in this place among a handful of dif churches other than LDS, and I see them all as simply businesses. They seem to provide nothing real other than wanting to absorb $$$. I won’t say ALL are like that bc I’ve not visited ALL, but I’ll confidently say that I feel most of them are nothing but businesses driven by a want to make $$$. I’m getting off point so I’ll leave it at that.

  • PlanetU May 19, 2018 at 8:50 pm

    blah, blah,blah…

  • Mike P May 20, 2018 at 11:48 am

    Wish they would tow away those construction vehicles and trailers parked on the street in this otherwise nice neighborhood.

  • ScanMeister May 20, 2018 at 1:04 pm

    Should get a good print from the Driver door…..he pushed it closed.

    • comments May 20, 2018 at 10:12 pm

      Even if caught, probably the worst these “youths” would get is a few hours of community service. And maybe mommy and daddy take the smartphone away for a full 7 hour school day as their severe punishment.

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