By KRWG News
Las Cruces – Purses left in parked vehicles were relatively easy targets for two teenagers arrested Thursday evening by Las Cruces Police officers.
Pablo A. Soto, 19, and Miguel A. Marmolejo, 17, are each charged with two counts of burglary of a vehicle, larceny and conspiracy.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 21, Las Cruces Police responded to an auto burglary at the Cracker Barrel restaurant on Hickory Drive. Officers arrived and learned that someone threw a rock through the driver's side window of a car and stole a woman's purse. A witness told officers that the suspect may have left in a small white sedan.
At around the same time officers received information that someone broke into a vehicle and stole a purse at the Tom Young's Fitness Center on Foster Road.
Within minutes an LCPD officer spotted a white Nissan Versa heading west on Idaho Avenue. The officer followed the vehicle, driven by Soto, to Melendres Street where he conducted a traffic stop. Inside the car officers located the two purses that were stolen.
Soto was on probation for a previous offense so he is now being held without bond at the Dona Ana County Detention Center. Marmolejo is being held in the juvenile section of the facility.
The Las Cruces Police Department reminds motorists to remove or conceal all valuables when leaving a vehicle parked for any amount of time.