SLIDELL, La. -- The St. Tammany Sheriff's Office has identified three teenagers for a string of car burglaries in Slidell after a bottle of apple juice led investigators to the suspects.
According to investigators, more than 50 cars were robbed in subdivisions, including Clipper Estates and Oak Harbor, beginning around July 4.
The cars burglarized were all left unlocked.
"It's one of the most easily preventable crimes we have in St. Tammany Parish," said Capt. George Bonnett, a St. Tammany Sheriff's Office spokesman. According to Bonnett, the burglars simply pulled door handles. Inside the unlocked cars, the burglars stole all they could carry, and according to investigators, on several occasions they couldn't carry all they stole. So they left behind small piles of items with the intention of picking them up later.
Alongside one of those piles, detectives said, was an empty Tropicana Apple Juice bottle.
"The vehicle owner said they didn't drink apple juice," Bonnett said. "So we were going on the hunch that it was left there by the burglars."
St. Tammany Detective Matt Lewis called the Tropicana distributor and found what stores sold that bottle.
"Our detectives were able to determine that that particular kind of apple juice was only sold at two stores in the Slidell area," Captain Bonnett said.
And only one store, the convenience store at the Shell gas station at I-59 and Highway 1090 in Pearl River, was open overnight, when the burglaries happened.
"They were able to look at the surveillance video," Captain Bonnett added, "and they saw three white males on the video, purchasing that apple juice, at about the right time in about the right location."
Investigators contacted surrounding agencies and found that the Picayune Police had arrested three men for car burglaries in Mississippi. The pictures matched, and St. Tammany detectives went to Picayune to interview the men. According to investigators, when questioned, the three teenagers admitted to the Slidell burglary.
All three are now in jail in Picayune, 17-year old Devin Mitchell, 17-year old Ronald Cuevas, and 19-year old Jesse Millis, all of Picayune.
Three are expected to be transfered back to Louisiana to face burglary charges in St. Tammany Parish.
