On Wednesday, January 13, at about 7:00 a.m., Detectives from the Thousand Oaks Police Department arrested two suspects in connection with six storage unit burglaries in Newbury Park.
The suspects’ crime spree occurred between October and November of 2020, where six victims at Extra Space Storage had their units illegally entered and their property stolen. Based on a thorough investigation, Thousand Oaks Detectives were able to determine the suspects purchased a storage unit online with a false name and received a code to enter the premises. The suspects then drove to the storage facility, entered with the code and used lock picking tools to illegally gain entry to the victim’s storage units and steal property.
Detectives identified the suspects as Michael Shaffer, 51 years, Sylmar resident and Vanik Simonyan, 34 years, Glendale resident. Through the investigation, it was determined the pair had used the same means as described above to enter numerous Extra Space Storage Facilities and Public Storage facilities throughout Ventura County and Southern California to commit their crimes.
After the arrest, detectives developed information that the suspects had a long-term storage rental in Mission Hills. Detectives obtained a search warrant and searched the storage unit and collected a large amount of stolen property.
At the time of arrest, the suspects were in possession of stolen property, false identification, lock picking tools and drug paraphernalia. The two were arrested for 6 counts of burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools and identity theft. Schaffer had two outstanding felony warrants for burglary in LA County. They were booked at the Pre-Trial Detention Facility in Ventura and Shaffer’s bail was set at $450,000 and Simonyan’s bail was set at $250,000. The arraignments will be held on January 15, 2021.