by Jim Emerson
LAFAYETTE — Several police agencies coordinated with the Lafayette Police
Department to arrest two suspects in connection with multiple vehicle burglaries
in Contra Costa County. The arrests were made on October 13.
Lafayette police identified the suspects as Urbiel Hernandez-Lobatos, 31, and
Joel Hernandez-Lobatos, 23, both Oakland residents. A prepared statement
from Lafayette PD describes what happened.
In a sequence of events on October 13, Orinda police responded to a report of
tools stolen from a truck at 11:15 a.m. Shortly after the Orinda call, Lafayette
officers responded to a reported theft of a tools from a construction worker’s
vehicle.
A car associated with the suspects in both thefts was later spotted at 11:45 a.m.,
by a Lafayette officer in a residential area of Lafayette. The suspects fled from
the area onto State Route 24 at Acalanes Road. Incidentally, the same car is
also linked to earlier thefts in Alamo.
A California Highway Patrol helicopter monitored the car, as it continued onward
to Oakland city streets. The car was abandoned on the 7200 block of Fresno
Street in Oakland, where the suspects ran inside a residence.
“Oakland police were able to take both suspects into custody without further
incident,” according to the Lafayette PD statement. “A search of the Acura
resulted in the recovery of property from the burglaries that happened in
Lafayette and Orinda.”
Both men were booked at the Martinez Detention Facility. Police and other
media reports do not say whether the Hernandez-Lobatos suspects are related.
They were booked for conspiracy, grand theft, possession of stolen property,
among other charges.
