Gwinnett County Police Department detectives have clamped down on a man they say is behind a string of storage unit burglaries in the area. According to information provided by the department to FOX 5 Atlanta, 27-year-old Tucker resident Jairo Humberto Gudiel Villeda was arrested following an investigation that included surveillance footage and electronic evidence that placed him at the crimes.
Investigators began to piece together the alleged crime spree after several burglaries were reported around unincorporated Norcross and Lilburn. They were able to quickly identify Villeda as a person of interest after the vice president of Public Storage shared vital information that led the detectives to closely pursue Villeda. Flock cameras, which are designed to rapidly pick up the presence of vehicles and persons of interest, pinged Villeda's location on February 29, near a Public Storage on Beaver Ruin Road.
Police said Villeda resorted to using fictitious names, credit cards, and checks to rent out vacant storage units, allowing him the access to the facilities from which he would carry out his alleged thefts. Bodycam footage acquired by officers then showed Villeda in the act of burglarizing a unit, a crime that would swiftly bring him to custody. The arrest was also detailed in a report by Atlanta News First, which noted the explicit video evidence of the crime in progress.
The charges against Villeda are extensive: burglary, possession of tools for the commission of a crime, three counts of criminal trespass, three counts of loitering and prowling, four counts of identity theft, and possession of methamphetamine. He was taken into custody and booked at the Gwinnett County Jail, where, with a bond set at $33,000, he remained in jail records show.
