Coronado Police Seeking Crime Spree Suspect

Authorities were on the lookout Monday for a young man who was believed to be high on some sort of drug while carrying out an erratic series of home and auto burglaries in Coronado.

The crime spree started coming to light shortly before 9:30 Sunday night, when a family found an unidentified intruder cooking in the kitchen of their G Avenue home, police spokeswoman Lea Corbin said. The victims were able to chase the stranger away, she said.

Officers subsequently discovered that someone had tried to break into another home on the same road and into a vehicle on nearby G Avenue.

About two hours later, police received a call of a hit-and-run crash in the 900 block of B Avenue. Following the wreck, the fleeing motorist continued on for a few blocks before the car he was driving stalled due to the crash damage, Corbin said.

The suspect — who was wearing torn jeans, no shirt and only one shoe — abandoned the car and began leaving the area on foot, bolting when a passer- by who had seen the accident tried to stop him. The witness called the police after the youth escaped by climbing onto the roof of a commercial building.

Investigators determined that the vehicle involved in the traffic accident had been stolen along with other items from a home in the 800 block of B Avenue while the residents slept. Another car also had been broken into on the same street, and someone had tried to burglarize yet another home in that neighborhood, the spokeswoman said.

The same perpetrator was believed to be responsible for all the crimes. He was described as a dark-haired, light-skinned white or Latino man in his late teens or early 20s.

Police searched in vain for the burglar through the evening with help from officers and helicopters from other area law enforcement agencies, according to Corbin.