A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of burglarizing a home under fumigation in Lakeside, sheriff’s deputies said. Meanwhile, investigators are looking into a series of burglaries targeting homes being sprayed for pests.
Jason Depew was arrested Friday following the most recent burglary at 9548 Farmington Drive in Lakeside after sheriff’s deputies had responded to a report of a burglary in progress.
The employee of a termite fumigation company reported arriving at the home to remove a fumigation tent when he came across a man inside the home, sheriff’s deputies said.
The suspect ran out of the home, but the fumigation employee followed him in his work truck and called deputies.
Deputies spotted the suspect at the nearby intersection of Lemon Crest Drive and Orange Crest Drive.
The family who lives at the home told NBC 7 that the burglar ransacked the place.
Homeowner Karli Knaust said the suspect left his clothes in their 3-year-old daughter's room and helped himself to her husband's clothes.
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"Everything's a disaster in there," Knaust said. "He even used the bathroom. He left it and didn't flush. He's gross. There's a drug needle on the floor. matchbooks everywhere."
Depew was arrested on suspicion of residential burglary and booked in the San Diego County Jail.
Investigators say they have only linked Depew to the most recent burglary of a fumigated home.
The string of other burglaries in the East County area over the past several months are still under investigation.
