ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
Four suspects in the Sunday overnight burglary of a downtown retailer of luxury watches and jewelry were booked into Pitkin County Jail on Tuesday after Aspen police received an assist from law enforcement in Vail.
After the group of men burglarized Avi & Co. by breaking through adjacent businesses in the Hunter Plaza building on East Cooper Avenue, the Aspen Police Department released a state-wide notification with key information about the suspects to law enforcement, according to a press release the APD issued Tuesday afternoon.
“Officers used modern policing technology to identify a suspect vehicle and the suspects themselves, including license plate recognition technology and video surveillance recordings,” the release says. “A notification was sent state-wide looking for the suspects, who were then contacted by police in Vail. A detective and officer were dispatched to Vail, where the suspects were interviewed and arrested.”
Each of the four suspects are from out of the country, according to the release. They were booked into Pitkin County Jail after 3 p.m. Tuesday.
• Tomas Bravo Toro, 34, a resident of Peru, was arrested on a primary charge of second-degree burglary, the release said. His bond was $22,000 cash-surety as of Tuesday, according to a Pitkin County Jail deputy.
• Augustin Ramirez Vida, 41, a resident of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was arrested on a primary charge of second-degree burglary. His bond stood at $23,000.
• Paolo Andres Zapata Canate, 35, of Chile, was arrested on a primary charge of conspiracy to commit burglary. His bond was $2,500.
• Luis Andres Baeza Soto, 43, of Chile, was arrested on a primary charge of conspiracy to commit burglary. His bond was $2,500.
The press release also clarified the timeline of the events that were reported in an article published Tuesday in the Aspen Daily News.
“Officers were initially called to Avi & Co 602 East Cooper Avenue late Sunday evening, Nov. 10, for a burglary alarm, but left the business when nothing was discovered,” the release said. “Later, around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 11 officers were again summoned to the store by a burglary alarm. When officers noticed inconsistencies at the scene from the previous alarm, they investigated further, discovering the burglary. Suspects had fled the scene when officers made entry into the store.”
The store manager told the Aspen Daily News that the suspects returned after their initial visit and it did not appear that they took the store’s most valuable items that were secured in a vault. It was unclear if any items in the showroom were taken, the manager said. The store’s video surveillance showed what appeared to be five men, all wearing hoodies and/or face masks, he said.
The Daily News erroneously reported Tuesday the burglars’ point of entry, which was through the former Local Coffee House space. The burglars allegedly used blowtorches, saws, drills, hammers and crowbars to do the job.
“They broke in through the restaurant that is currently under construction behind us,” the manager said. “They broke into the restaurant, and once they got into the restaurant, they broke into the gallery that connects to it wall-to-wall, and from the gallery wall, they broke into our wall and just the store’s back office. They were rummaging through the cabinet drawers to try and look for valuable merchandise. Thankfully all of that per usual was locked up in the vaults. But they cut the power off, they spraypainted the motion sensors; they cut off all of the electric endings connected to the alarm system.”
The APD’s press release called the alleged crime “a brazen burglary of an Aspen watch shop.”
“Our officers did an incredible job investigating this case and rapidly identifying the suspects,” said Chief of Police Kim Ferber in a statement. “We alerted law enforcement across Colorado and astute officers from Vail PD recognized the vehicle.”