SAN JOSE (KRON) — Detectives with the San Jose Police Department are searching for a group of men who have been burglarizing houses while posing as utility employees with constructions vests and hard hats.
Two of the burglaries happened on March 20; one on Hostetter Road in the Berryessa neighborhood, and the othe ron Lochridge Drive in East San Jose.
A third happened on March 26; this one on Los Gatos-Almaden Road in southwest San Jose near Los Gatos.
The burglars told the residents that they worked for the Santa Clara Valley Water District or that they were road construction workers for PG&E.
The men got the residents to go into their back yards with one of the two men and turn on a water hose.
While that was going on, the other man would burglarize their houses.
Witnesses told police they saw four men, each wearing yellow-orange colored construction vests and hard hats and holding radios to talk to each another in Spanish.
All of the burglaries happened during the day, between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
The men were seen leaving in a white Chevrolet SUV or a white newer model 2000s Dodge four-door pickup truck with extended cab.
One witness said a suspect was about 50 years old, of Middle Eastern or Samoan ancestry, 6 feet tall, weighing 200 pounds, and another was a Hispanic male from 30 to 35 years old and 5 feet 8 inches.
A second witness described a total of five suspects, including a Hispanic male about 50 years old, 6 feet 3 inches, 250 pounds with a shaved head and black beard; a Hispanic male about 30 years old, 200 pounds; a white or Hispanic male in his 30s, 5 feet 6 inches with a thick black mustache; a man in his 30s, 5 feet 10 inches, full mustache and beard; and a Hispanic male in his 40s, 6 feet 1 inch and 300 pounds.
A third witness recalled two suspects, a Hispanic male 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 11 inches tall, heavy set with short hair and a Hispanic male adult 5 feet 7 inches high and skinny.
KRON4’s Will Tran has more in this video report.