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OREM — Police have arrested a man they believe committed more than 50 burglaries in the Orem area.
Job Soto was arrested Wednesday night by a Lindon Police officer who allegedly caught Soto in the act of burglarizing a business, Orem Police Sgt. Craig Martinez said.
Martinez said more than 50 burglaries have occurred in Orem since Dec. 15 and detectives have so far linked Soto to seven. He expects that Soto will be linked to at least 40 burglaries.
"It was getting pretty bad," Martinez said. "There were some weekends we'd have three or four in just a two-day period."
Trevor Giles, who owns an auto shop that was burglarized twice, said that Soto worked for him 10 years ago. The first time his job was burglarized, a small amount of cash was stolen, prompting him to change where he kept the money. During the second break-in, the burglar had tried to open, and damaged, a $6,500 tool box.
He said that he was surprised when Soto was arrested but he was glad police had taken someone into custody.
"It has you nervous leaving at night just thinking if he's going to come back," Giles said.
Soto had recently visited Giles store as a customer and called Giles asking for work after he returned to Orem from Nevada, where, police have found, he is also wanted for burglary.
"He called me about three months ago saying he was back home looking for a job," Giles said.
Martinez said police believe Soto had cased the locations before he burglarized them. The burglaries were typically committed by someone breaking through glass windows and doors and taking cash, credit cards or equipment. Martinez said they were able to recover clothing and masks from Soto that matched surveillance footage of the burglaries as well as finding stolen merchandise from Jiffy Lube in Soto's possession.
"We do have quite a bit of evidence on this guy," Martinez said.
