SAN BERNARDINO: Deported felon accused of stealing puppy

BY BRIAN ROKOS
STAFF WRITER
March 29, 2013; 10:52 PM

A DirecTV installer who authorities say is a recently deported felon was arrested Thursday, March 28, after surveillance video showed a man stealing the customer’s $2,500 English bulldog puppy from the backyard.

Eduardo Robles, 38, of San Bernardino, was in custody Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned April 2 on a charge of grand theft dog, according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and online jail records.

Stealing a dog valued at more than $950 is considered grand theft, according to the state Penal Code.

Robles was an employee of a subcontractor that installs satellite television systems when on March 8 he installed a DirecTV system in Victorville, a news release said. Later that day, a surveillance camera captured a man returning to the customer’s residence and using a ladder to dismantle a latch on the backyard gate.

The footage showed a man enter the yard and then leave with the puppy in his arms. Detectives arrested Robles on Glassgow Street in San Bernardino. The dog was found at a nearby house.

Detectives learned that Robles has been using the name Wence Benitez Gonzalez, and that he was in possession of false identification bearing that name, the release said. Detectives later discovered that Robles is an undocumented immigrant and a recently deported felon.

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