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5 Suspects Captured In String Of Irvine Home Burglaries

IRVINE (CBSLA) – Five suspects wanted in a string of residential burglaries in Irvine were captured this week after a search that forced the lockdown of an elementary school.

5 Suspects Captured In String Of Irvine Home Burglaries
Five suspects were arrested Oct. 4, 2017, in a string of burglaries in Irvine, Calif. Clockwise from left to right: Kevin Paul Williams, Tracy Nan, Terry Nguyen Huynh, Verasm Kevin Eam and Ferdinand Morales Franco. (Irvine Police Department)

The suspects were arrested after being spotted during a burglary-in-progress Wednesday morning in the Northwood Point neighborhood.

Verasm Kevin Eam, 22, Ferdinand Morales Franco, 32, Tracy Nan, 32, and Kevin Paul Williams, 30, all of Long Beach, were booked on suspicion of four burglaries in Northwood Point, according to Kim Mohr of the Irvine Police Department. Terry Nguyen Huynh, 21, of Newport Beach, was booked on being an accessory.

Franco and Huynh have posted bail and were released, according to jail records.

Police were called to a burglary at about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday off Lynnfield Road. As officers arrived they saw the suspects fleeing in a black Lexus, Mohr said. A police sergeant spotted the suspected getaway car about an hour later near Meadowood Park and stopped the car, Mohr said.

Nan, who was driving, was arrested. Eam, Franco and Williams tried to run away, but one suspect was found a short time later hiding in a trash bin, Mohr said.

A search for the remaining suspects prompted a lockdown at Canyon View Elementary School and a "soft" lockdown at Northwood High School.

Two other suspects were caught shortly after a resident saw them flee from her garage about 2:50 p.m., Mohr said. The two allegedly broke into a home, prompting the resident to flee and call police, who rounded up the remaining suspects, Mohr said.

Huynh was accused of attempting to give the suspects a ride, Mohr said.

Eam pleaded guilty June 16 to possession of a gun in a school zone, carrying a concealed gun in a vehicle and carrying a loaded, stolen gun in public, and was sentenced to 180 days in jail and placed on three years of formal probation, according to court records.

(©2017 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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