Thieves Get Stung as Cops Come Out of the Condominum

The residents of the Compton Boulevard condominium would buy just about anything and displayed a knack for finding bargains.

They paid $900 for a Mercedes-Benz and $600 for a BMW. They bought 90 pounds of beef off the back of one man’s truck and paid $100 for a tractor-trailer rig loaded with Miller beer. Cameras, televisions, radios, stereos, credit cards, clothes, bicycles and drugs flowed through the place for nearly a year--all of it stolen.

But the clearinghouse for crime in a neighborhood between Hawthorne and Gardena closed about a month ago, and local criminals just got the bad news why:

The friendly fence was really the fuzz.

The Hawthorne Police Department revealed Thursday that undercover police officers had operated in the condominium since last July to catch “an almost endless stream of burglars, car thieves, hijackers and hypes”--police slang for drug abusers.

50 Arrests

Several other police departments helped in the “sting” operation, which recovered stolen property valued at nearly $1 million and led to 50 arrests for offenses ranging from grand theft to drug possession.

Police finished the operation with a flourish Thursday morning, raiding 15 homes in Los Angeles and Orange counties and arresting 15 people.

Even as they raided the homes, police said, one suspect contacted an undercover officer through the electronic beeper he used in the sting, and the officer arranged to buy a two-way radio that had just been stolen in Encino. The thief was then arrested.

The operation was financed with a $100,000 grant from the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning and $11,000 from the city of Hawthorne.

Detectives used the money in part to place hidden video cameras and microphones in the condominium. About half the cash--$45,000--went to buy the stolen goods.

After undercover officers established that they were in the market for stolen property by seeking out someone known to strip parts from stolen cars, “it started just building and building,” Hawthorne Police Lt. Herb Mundon said.

“One thief would introduce them to another thief. It became known as a place to get rid of stolen property.”

Prices Ridiculously Low

The desire to fence stolen goods in a hurry and to acquire drug money led some of the suspects to sell their merchandise at ridiculously low prices, police said, pointing to the purchase of the truckload of beer for $100.

Police made 225 buys in all, including a truckload of electronic equipment valued at $150,000 and 40 cars, mostly newer models, that went for well under $1,000 each.

If the thieves did not appear too dangerous, Mundon said, police waited to arrest them later, so the operation would not be given away. But police arrested suspects sooner if they became aggressive or too successful, such as the car thief who stole four cars in one night.

“They had to arrest that one guy just to slow him down,” said Tom Quintana, a spokesman for the city.

Two Hawthorne policemen, whose names were withheld, were the principal occupants of the condominium, although “relatives” from the county Sheriff’s Department, and the El Segundo, Gardena and Inglewood police departments would sometimes drop by to help purchase stolen goods.

But the detectives became targets as well, as thieves four times attempted to break into the condominium and once stole and stripped an unmarked police car, Mundon said.