Police arrest 4 suspected in 33 burglaries


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BOUNTIFUL — Four people suspected in a series of burglaries were arrested this week and an enormous trove of personal belongings were recovered from a hotel in Salt Lake City, police said.

Joe Hernandez, 51, Isaac Hernandez, 26, and Thomas Bymiller, 25, were arrested by Bountiful police and Jeremy Hernandez, 31, was arrested by Unified police for investigation of as many as 33 burglaries between American Fork and Centerville.

The men are officially linked to seven of those cases, according to Bountiful Police Lt. Dave Edwards, but they are considered suspects in all 33 because of the methods used in those crimes.

Thieves stole from homes at random and pawned off jewelry items to support their heroin addiction, Edwards said. The men were extraordinarily fast while entering and exiting the homes, he said, leading to a pattern tipping off police that the same people were behind a rash of burglaries since October.

"We've dubbed these guys 'the pillowcase bandits' because they were using pillowcases to haul the stolen stuff out of the residences," he said.

Hundreds of jewelry items were located by investigators in Salt Lake City this week and police are trying to identify the owners of the property. Edwards said Utahns who have been burglarized should call their local police department if they believe their property may have been recovered in this case.

Photo credit: KSL-TV

On Friday, several tables laid out with stolen property at the Bountiful Police Department were displayed. Some of the items were sentimental, Edwards said, including Eagle Scout award medals and children's baby teeth kept in envelopes.

So far, burglary victims in five cases have identified items taken from them.

Edwards said it's likely that additional burglaries were committed by the same group.

"Given the amount of property we have, we think there will be a lot more cases. And we'll hopefully be able to locate all those victims," he said.

Contributing: Andrew Adams

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