OCEANSIDE (CNS) - Three teenagers with rifles were arrested Friday soon after a home was burglarized, police said.
A 16-year-old Oceanside resident and two 17-year-olds from Vista were arrested on suspicion of residential burglary, possession of stolen property and possession of a loaded firearm, said Oceanside police Officer Kim Rainwater.
Around 10 a.m., a neighbor reported seeing two males, wearing masks and bandanas and armed with rifles, flee a residence in the 1300 block of California Street, she said. The caller saw the suspects flee in a two-door, older model Ford Explorer.
Officers saw a Ford Explorer traveling north on Coast Highway and stopped the vehicle in the 400 block of Wisconsin Avenue.
The officer saw shotgun shells in the SUV, along with three shotguns and a backpack containing property allegedly belonging to the homeowner, Rainwater said.
Officers who arrived at the home to investigate the burglary found a steel security screen to the front door pried open, but no entry was made. They found a side door where an adjacent window was broken to gain entry into the house, according to Rainwater.
The homeowner, who was not there at the time of the burglary, identified one of the shotguns as his as well as property inside the backpack.
The other shotgun, which was loaded, was brought to the burglary by one of the suspects, Rainwater said. The other rifle remained in the vehicle.
The witness identified two of the teens, she said.
Another neighbor who suspected the teens of casing the home earlier that day confronted them and demanded to know why their license plate was covered with a piece of paper.
One of the suspects got out of the vehicle and removed the paper. At that time, the witness wrote down the license plate and later gave it to police.
The license plate number matched that of SUV the teens were in when they were caught.
