A San Jose man has been charged with a series of burglaries at churches and temples throughout the South Bay and investigators are searching for other suspects who may be involved in the break-ins targeting cash donations.
Jaime Gutierrez Flores was arraigned Wednesday on the charges, which include at least seven other burglaries, assaulting a police officer, and allegedly working with other men to burglarize a Hindu temple three different times in less than a month, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
"Our schools, our homes, our places of worship, are special and sacred places and when they are invaded by criminals it feels as though our whole community has been violated," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "Our Office will hold this criminal, and anyone who acted with him, fully responsible to the law."
The DA's office in a news release listed the following crimes the 33-year-old Flores is accused of:
- At 2:25 a.m., on Dec. 4, the suspect broke into a Santa Clara church with another man, stealing $1,805 worth of property, including $1,640 in cash donations.
- After midnight on Dec. 5, Flores and two other suspects forced entry into the front glass door of a temple in Milpitas, stole a donation box, damaged a second donation box, and took a total of approximately $6,000 in cash.
- The next evening, Flores and another suspect pried their way into a temple in Sunnyvale and stole donation boxes with about $15,000 in donations inside. The next evening, the suspects took $25,000 more from the same temple. A few weeks later they struck the same temple and almost hit an officer as they escaped in a car, with $6,000 more in donations taken.
- Flores also burglarized a church in San Jose and several other businesses in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose.
Flores was arrested at a San Jose church this past weekend. He is being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court on March 22.
The DA's office also said investigators found searches for temples in Flores' phone.
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