Husband, Wife Plead Not Guilty in Break-Ins

They are partners in life--and in crime, police say.

All told, police allege that Stephen and Sandra Nelson burglarized about two dozen Orange County restaurants together.

The Fountain Valley husband and wife were caught this week in the parking lot of a Newport Beach restaurant with $771 in cash and coins stuffed in a box, according to police.

The arrests outside Cappy’s Cafe ended a six-week investigation that began when the same seaside restaurant was first burglarized. Police suspect the couple of taking more than $10,000 over the past two months in burglaries of restaurants in Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

The two entered not-guilty pleas Wednesday to 11 burglary counts each, including two stemming from the Cappy’s cases. Police said they also plan to seek charges in 12 other burglaries.

Stephen Jeffrey Nelson, 38, and Sandra Nelson, 35, both have extensive criminal histories. Court records show the two have been convicted of drug violations; in at least one case they were arrested together and sentenced on the same day.

In addition to the drug convictions, Stephen Nelson was convicted of burglary in Orange County in 1985, 1987, 1992 and 1995, receiving state prison terms each time. The 1995 conviction stems from the burglary of Gustav’s Restaurant in Anaheim, where Nelson was found in a kitchen area covered with grease from crawling down an exhaust vent from the roof, according to an Anaheim police report in court records.

Newport Beach Police Sgt. Mike McDermott said it isn’t all that unusual for couples to work together in crime.

“It doesn’t happen all the time, but it doesn’t strike me as unusual,� McDermott said. “The wife typically drives and the husband breaks in.�

The arrests came at 4:30 a.m. Monday after officers, alerted by an alarm, spotted a late-model Hyundai sedan in Cappy’s parking lot with its lights out and engine running. Nearby, police say, they saw Sandra Nelson standing by a fire ladder leading to a roof where her husband had allegedly been throwing down the loot, police said.

Officers arrested her without a struggle. After a brief foot chase, they also arrested Stephen Nelson. The two were booked on suspicion of commercial burglary into the Newport Beach City Jail.

Police suspect Stephen Nelson used a crowbar to pry open a roof vent at the restaurant, then entered an office where he allegedly took the cash.

“It’s crazy,� said Cappy’s owner Nick Panagakis on Wednesday, acknowledging that he had left cash on his desk despite the earlier burglary.

Panagakis added that he has since bought a safe.