A man suspected in a string of burglaries of retail stores in San Francisco has been arrested again after being released without being prosecuted for the crimes.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Jean Carlos Lugo-Romero’s latest crimes:
A suspect in more than a dozen San Francisco retail store burglaries was arrested over the weekend as he attempted to steal items from a store two days after taking $1,500 in clothing, cosmetics and over-the-counter medications from the same location, police said.
Police say Lugo-Romero is also suspected of a similar burglary two days earlier, when officers responded to reports of someone stealing dozens of items using a plastic trash bag and fleeing the scene on a bicycle. Officers searched the area, but were unable to locate the suspect.
Police said the San Francisco Burglary Unit has over a dozen open investigations related to similar thefts at the same store, which officials did not identify, with the estimated loss totaling more than $15,000. Lugo-Romero is the primary suspect in those crimes as well.
He was taken into custody Saturday at a store at Haight and Fillmore streets after attempting to flee on a bicycle with a large plastic bag. He is the suspect in a similar burglary two days earlier. https://t.co/xehaniLOJg
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) July 19, 2022
The Chronicle reported that Lugo-Romero was most recently booked for suspicion of burglary, violation of protection order, trespassing, resisting/delaying arrest, possession of burglary tool, theft, possession of drug paraphernalia and probation violation.
UPDATE: I shot this video a little more than a year ago. The man went to prison and served time. He was eventually released and on Saturday SF police arrested him again, they say, for #shoplifting at a @cvspharmacy store. pic.twitter.com/ojCVF0JRFm
— Lyanne Melendez (@LyanneMelendez) July 18, 2022
The soft-on-crime policies in San Francisco is leading to serial offenders such as Lugo-Romero getting back on the streets to commit more crimes.
In 2019 the Tech Gate website reported on Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco District Attorney who has since been recalled and his policy to not prosecute shoplifters, including Jean Carlos Lugo-Romero:
“When I watch that video, I think about five questions that people are not asking that I think they should,” Boudin told The New Yorker at the time. “Is he drug addicted, mentally ill, desperate? Is he part of a major retail fencing operation?”
“What’s driving this behavior and is it in any way representative, because it was presented as something symptomatic?” Boudin said.
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