A homeless man is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday for charges related to a recent vehicle theft with connections to Irvine and Lakeland Village, jail records and police reports indicate.
29-year-old Jeremy Burchstead, a transient from Orange County, was arrested Friday night, according to Sheriff's Sgt. Chad Loeffler.
It all started around 6:30 p.m. Friday, after a woman called to report that her 2006 dark blue Lexus had been taken from her Irvine home.
"The victim had several pieces of personal property in her vehicle when it was stolen," Loeffler said in a statement. "Deputies received information the stolen property may be near the area of Rose Avenue and Grand Avenue, in the unincorporated area of Riverside County known as Lakeland Village."
When deputies went out to a home in the 32000 block of Rose Avenue to investigate, they said they found "several items of stolen property." There was a man at the house, but he was not involved in the thefts, according to Loeffler, who added that another man had fled prior to police arrival.
Then, police got a lead into that man's possible whereabouts when someone called dispatch to report a suspicious person in the area of Richard Street and Grand Avenue in Lakeland Village, he said.
"The caller reported a male subject had parked a dark blue Lexus on the dirt shoulder of the road," Loeffler said. "The subject was seen wiping down the vehicle prior to fleeing the area on foot."
Sheriff's deputies eventually tracked Burchstead down on Skylark Drive, west of Grand Avenue, according to the sergeant.
"After a brief struggle, the suspect was taken into custody," he said.
Burchstead was taken to the Murrieta jail, where he remains on $5,000 bail, according to jail records.
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