RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KTLA) — The thief dubbed the “snake burglar” because of the way he wriggled on the floor to avoid businesses’ alarm systems in California seems to have reappeared.
The burglar, who made off with thousands of dollars worth of cash and merchandise from multiple businesses in December, might have struck again, this time at a gold exchange business earlier this month.
Cesar Meyer, of Crown Gold Exchange, compared the thief’s motions to Lt. Dan Taylor from “Forrest Gump,” who lost his legs in Vietnam and, without his wheelchair, would have to crawl.
“This guy slithered in, crawled on the ground, kind of like Lt. Dan-style, hand over hand — didn’t move his legs — and was able to rummage through my entire back room for a full five minutes,” said Meyer.
Meyer said the burglar came in through the wall of a neighboring property in the same strip mall and got away with about $50,000 worth of silver.
“My ADT alarm was set. We have motion sensors back there, and it didn’t catch him, and that’s been the case with all of the other people that were burglarized by this same burglar,” Meyer said.
Police said they’re investigating to see if this thief is the same person who committed last month’s burglaries, but Meyer laid at least partial blame on his alarm system.
“There’s definitely something faulty, something going on with the ADT motion detectors, because if they’re designed to detect motion, this guy is moving around a lot in all of these businesses, and ADT’s motion detectors are not picking it up,” Meyer said.
ADT did not respond to a request for comment from KTLA.
