A man was arrested early Thursday after separate burglaries across San Diego, and police are investigating whether he may be linked to similar incidents in recent weeks.
San Diego police responded to three overnight burglaries, two at the Del Sur Town Center's Board and Brew and Shushi Ren and one at a taco shop in the University City area.
During the investigation, police obtained a suspect and vehicle description believed to be linked to the burglaries and later located a similar vehicle traveling eastbound on SR-56, SDPD said. Officers followed the vehicle, which spun out and crashed into an ice plant near SR-56 and Camino Del Sur, where he was taken into custody around 4:45 a.m.
The suspect, identified as Robert Abduljabar Coleman, 33, was taken into custody in connection with the overnight burglaries.
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Inside the suspect's vehicle was a sledgehammer "along with additional evidence", according to officers.
Several recent burglaries have reportedly involved a suspect using a sledgehammer, according to surveillance video and tips from the police, although law enforcement has not yet said if the suspect arrested Thursday was believed to be connected to any of those either.
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Last Monday, SDPD Chief Scott Wahl said they believed a series of nearly two dozen burglaries with similar patterns may be linked to the same person or group.
“He’s up to about 19, 20 cases right now throughout the county,” Wahl told NBC 7 in the early December interview. “We’re taking this very serious. We’re working collaboratively with other agencies to make sure that we’re going to stack every single one of these cases on top of the person or people that might be responsible.”
