Less than two months after an SUV smashed through their Occidental Street home, injuring a 10-year-old girl, a Redlands family was the victim of a burglar who broke into the home as it was being renovated and stole belongings including a computer that contained precious family photos.
Last Tuesday, Redlands detectives arrested a 45-year-old Yucaipa man for the burglary, recovering the computer and additional stolen items.
Workers renovating the damaged home in the 1600 block of Occidental Drive showed up to work Tuesday morning, Oct. 3, and discovered the home had been broken into and ransacked sometime over the weekend. In addition to the missing computer, a jewelry box was emptied and some of the jewelry was found strewn on the property.
The home was damaged just before 7 a.m. Aug. 17 when the driver of an SUV lost control of her vehicle, crashing into the house near the corner of San Bernardino Avenue.
The 1997 Mercury Mountaineer, driven by a 20-year-old Redlands woman, was traveling west on San Bernardino Avenue when the driver lost control and crashed into the home on Occidental, traveling through a bathroom and two bedrooms, including the bedroom where the 10-year-old was sleeping, before crashing through the back wall of the home, continuing through the back yard, through another fence, over a 6-foot retaining wall and into the master bedroom of a home in the 1600 block of Nathan Court where the vehicle came to rest.
The 10-year-old girl suffered broken bones. Two other children and their mother were also in the Occidental Street home. One of the children suffered mild abrasions. The vehicle driver reported complaint of pain. No other injuries were reported.
The home on Occidental was red-tagged as uninhabitable and many of the family’s belongings remained inside as renovations on the structure were under way.
Through investigation, police were quickly able to trace property stolen in the recent burglary to an address in the 34000 block of Cedar Avenue in Yucaipa where they located 45-year-old Michael Scott Day. A search of Day’s residence turned up the stolen computer and additional unreported stolen property.
Day was arrested for possession of stolen property and theft and booked into Central Detention Center in San Bernardino.