Man Charged in More Than 40 Burglaries

An Allentown man has been charged with committing 41 residential burglaries and five attempted burglaries – sometimes two to three a week – from Oct. 15, 2011, to Feb. 14, 2012, in Allentown, Bethlehem, Fountain Hill and Salisbury Township, according to the Lehigh County District Attorney's office.

Herman Ojeda, 37, of 941 Turner St., Apt. 1, Allentown, was charged on Tuesday, March 13, 2012, and was scheduled to be arraigned at Lehigh County Central Booking, the district attorney said.

According to the news release:

Before the charges were filed, Ojeda had been incarcerated on an alleged probation violation.

Police said that an estimated total of $98,224 was taken in the burglaries. Among the items stolen were jewelry, collector coins, electronics and handguns. In most of the cases, the defendant ransacked the bedrooms and left other rooms undisturbed, according to police.

Police executed a search warrant at Ojeda’s residence on Feb. 16, 2012, and recovered some of the stolen items. Police also executed a search warrant for a vehicle of Ojeda’s girlfriend and found stolen jewelry and a flat-tip screwdriver that is suspected to have been used in many of the burglaries, police said.

The affidavit of probable cause for arrest alleges the following:

Almost all of the burglaries occurred between noon and 3 p.m. at residences when the owners were not at home. In one Allentown burglary in the 2000 block of S. Fourth Street, the owner returned home on Jan. 26, 2012, and saw a man in her home. The man ran past the homeowner and fled out a back door. The victim gave police a detailed description of the burglar and his clothing. Other witnesses provided a similar physical description.

In one case, a camera system at a house in the 1200 block of Lehigh Street, Allentown, recorded a person knocking on the front door. A nearby homeowner later reported a burglary.

Police said Ojeda would knock on targeted homes and neighboring homes to determine if residents were home before committing the burglaries.

Police determined that Ojeda was on house arrest and was being supervised by the Lehigh County Adult Probation Office when the burglaries occurred. A GPS monitoring device that Ojeda was required to wear while on house arrest showed that he was in the area of the burglaries at the times they were committed.