ARVIN, Calif. (KERO) — In April, Arvin’s Public Works staff reported the theft of 4 new trucks. Now, some of those vehicles are back at work, and although one suspect is still in custody, the others are not.
- Four new trucks were stolen from Arvin's Public Works in April.
- All stolen trucks were recovered the next day, but one was stripped and totaled.
- Four suspects were arrested, with one, Arturo Cantero, confessing and remaining in custody.
- Preventive measures include branding trucks with the city's logo to deter theft.
- Cantero is scheduled for sentencing on June 11th.
For your convenience, the skimmable summary above is generated with the assistance of AI and fact checked by our team prior to publication. Read the full story as originally reported below.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's been a month since the Arvin Public Works lot was broken into, leading to the theft of 4 new trucks, but thanks to the swift action of authorities, some of those trucks are now back at work.
In April, following a break-in at the Arvin Public Works lot, four trucks were stolen. The next day, with the help of the Kern County Auto Theft Task Force, the Arvin Police Department successfully recovered all four vehicles from different locations. Regrettably, one truck, found in an abandoned area in East Bakersfield, was stripped and deemed a total loss.
"There were no arrests made on that, it was just someone who saw something and they said something, so there's no correlation to that stripped vehicle being dumped on this potential abandoned property," said Arvin Police Chief Alex Ghazalpour.
However, police later arrested four individuals—Arturo Cantero, Juan Astudillo, Jose Ortega, and Daniel Ortiz—who were located traveling in one of the stolen trucks.
Cantero, the driver, admitted to the theft and remains in custody, facing multiple felony charges.
"He did plea out to the auto burglary and a drug charge as well," said Ghazalpour. "I think the DA's office coupled it with possibly another case that was not involving ours."
Regarding the other arrested individuals, Juan Astudillo has an outstanding bench warrant for possession of a controlled substance. Meanwhile, the District Attorney did not press charges against Jose Ortega or Daniel Ortiz.
"They could not correlate, and neither could we through our investigation, that they were actually involved. They just happened to be in one of our stolen vehicles—one of our stolen trucks—at the time it hit a license plate reader in Bakersfield, where we saw that the vehicle was moving," said Ghazalpour.
In response to the incident, the city has taken steps to prevent future thefts, including marking the vehicles with the city's logo.
Cantero is scheduled to be sentenced in court on Wednesday, June 11th.
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