Arrest In East Bay Hotel Room Burglaries

ALAMEDA (CBS/BCN) -- Alameda and Emeryville police worked together to locate and arrest a burglary suspect with an affinity for electronics left in hotel rooms on Thursday, Alameda police said.

Police were able to connect two burglaries from Alameda hotels to 28-year-old suspect Robert Huang of Hercules, Alameda police Sgt. Jill Ottaviano said.

The most recent of the two burglaries occurred on at the Extended Stay America hotel at 1350 Marina Village Parkway on Nov. 27.

The suspect removed two laptops - one was the victim's personal laptop, the other was for work - from the victim's room between 5:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m., Ottaviano said.

"The suspect was selling the property on the Internet," Ottaviano said.

The victim's supervisor found the work laptop posted in an ad on Craigslist, she said.

Police secured a court order and identified an Internet Protocol address that led to Huang, Ottaviano said.

Police posed as an interested buyer, set up a meeting with Huang in Emeryville and arrested him, Ottaviano said.

Alameda police were executing a search warrant at the Hercules home where Huang lives with his father while he was arrested.

Police recovered the other laptop at the Hercules home.

The burglary was similar to one that occurred on Nov. 4 at the Extended Stay Deluxe at 1260 South Loop Road, also in Alameda.

That day, a game system, a laptop and an iPod Touch were taken from a hotel room between 5:45 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Ottaviano said.

"We figured out that the two burglaries were related," Ottaviano said.

There were no signs of forced entry in either burglary, she said.

The suspect was in possession of hotel card keys that are specific to the Marina Village Parkway location, Ottaviano said.

It is not known how the suspect got into the South Loop Road room, Ottaviano said, though it's possible that "the room was not secured when the victim left."

Ottaviano also said the hotel's card key system is antiquated.

Huang was booked on suspicion of possession of stolen property, burglary and possession of burglary tools, Ottaviano said.

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