Several stores in Yucca Valley were victims of a series of smash and grab burglaries on the early morning of April 19th.
Bill Dozer, an owner of Desierto Alto, located at 55827 Twentynine Palms Highway, said that his security alarms alerted him to the break in just after midnight early Wednesday.
Dozer said that the store’s front, street-facing window was smashed, and that the suspect took several items close to the window, but no alcohol.
The Yucca Valley outpost of The End, located at 55872 Twentynine Palms Highway, was also broken into via a smashed front window. Owner Kime Buzzelli confirmed that she was out of town when the break-in occurred, but she received an alert from her alarm system. Buzzelli said that the hole in her front window was large enough for a person to get through. She was not certain how much merchandise, if any, had been taken from her store. Buzzelli explained that it was hard to determine what was missing because whoever broken in to the store rearranged furniture and items in an ornate fashion. Buzzelli said, “It’s almost as if they were playing with our stuff. They got mesmerized.”
Both Dozer and Buzelli spoke with Sheriff’s Deputies, who informed them that a suspect in the burglary had already been arrested, and they were able to return some of the stolen items, though the Morongo Basin Sheriff’s Station did not provide any details regarding these incidents.
Both Dozer and Buzzelli said that their windows had already been patched, and that they were waiting on estimates for the damage.
