Chico man guilty in Northern California post office burglaries
When he broke into the first Post Office in Butte County last September, Jeremy Anthony Elguez parked his car where the license plate was clearly visible to security cameras, then managed to get his face caught on video inside the building.
When he broke into the second one the next night, he managed to cut himself prying open locked drawers, and left behind blood that investigators were able to match to his DNA.
By the time he was arrested in March, the 32-year-old Chico man was being looked at in seven other “potentially related post office burglaries” throughout Northern California, court documents say.
On Tuesday, Elguez pleaded guilty in Sacramento federal court to two counts of post office burglary, offenses that could net him up to 5 years in prison on each count and a fine of up to $250,000.
Prosecutors also are seeking restitution of $16,827.03 in damages.
Elguez, who has been in custody in the Sacramento County Main Jail since March, entered his guilty pleas during a Zoom video hearing and faces sentencing Nov. 10 before U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez.
The first break-in occurred at 3:26 a.m. on Sept. 11 in Bangor, about 30 miles southeast of Chico, where video surveillance footage from inside the post office captured images of a man whose face matched the suspect’s driver’s license photo, as well as distinctive tattoos on both his legs, court filings say.
The suspect broke into the building through the 24-hour lobby using a crow bar and made off with a credit card machine and packages, and dropped some mail on the way out, court documents say.
The second break-in occurred the next night in Stirling City, where post office box keys, mail and money orders were taken, court filings say.
Authorities say those break-ins coincided with a series of eight other burglaries at Northern California post offices. Elguez conceded in plea agreement documents that he also was responsible for those break-ins, and that he had deposited a $350,000 check stolen from the mail after one of the burglaries.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 11:13 AM.