Police crack ring of thieves targeting South Asians in Va. - washingtonpost.com

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Burglars targeted stashes of gold

By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:32 PM

Fairfax County police think they have cracked a ring of burglars who were stealing only gold from Indian and South Asian homes, after a U.S. deputy marshal spotted a suspected vehicle in Centreville Tuesday night and arrested three people.

The burglars hit more than 20 homes in Fairfax and three more in Loudoun. Each time, they disdained silver, jewels and electronics, taking only gold jewelry, saris with gold threads and gold statues.

The victims were almost all Indian and South Asian, and have said that their families traditionally pass 22-karat gold from generation to generation. Police believe gold was being targeted because it is now selling at more than $1,000 an ounce.

A search warrant filed Thursday in Fairfax Circuit Court revealed that police had identified two possible suspects: a Hispanic man in a blue jump suit or work uniform, appearing to be a maintenance or repair worker, and a Hispanic woman with pink or red-tinted hair who knocked on doors soliciting for plumbing work. Some witnesses also told police that they had seen a small blue sport-utility vehicle, possibly a Ford, parked in the neighborhoods of some of the break-ins, which often occurred during the day.

According to an affidavit filed by Fairfax police Detective T.J. Harrington, Deputy U.S. Marshal Edgar Cline was working on the investigation and spotted a blue Ford Escape on Wednesday night on Cavalier Woods Lane, just south of Lee Highway. The Escape was being driven by a Hispanic male and a Hispanic female was in the passenger seat, Harrington wrote. Cline began pursuing it.

The Escape made several U-turns, apparently trying to evade Cline, according to Harrington, but the marshal pulled the Escape over on Moore Road near Clifton Road. The Hispanic woman in the front seat had red coloring in her hair and the driver was wearing a dark blue work uniform, Harrington wrote.

Also in the Escape, according to the affidavit, police found a laptop computer in the red-haired woman's lap; a portable global positioning system between the front seats; a black plastic clipboard with an contractors' invoice on it; and a portable police scanner tuned to Fairfax police frequencies in the back seat. A third person also was in the back.

All three people were taken into custody, and Fairfax police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings confirmed that police are investigating them for links to the two dozen gold burglaries. She said all were facing charges, but she did not have their names immediately available. She said more information would be released later Thursday afternoon.

In multiple cases, neighbors of the burglary victims had reported the woman with the pink- or red-tinted hair had knocked on their door, and that they also had seen the man in the blue work uniform nearby. On Oct. 29, a neighbor told police that a man in the blue uniform knocked on her door and asked if Ahmad Khan was home. The resident told the man he had the wrong address, and he left.

On the clipboard inside the Escape stopped Wednesday night was an invoice, dated Oct. 7, for "Ahmad Khan."