In the past week, Miami Springs Police arrested one alleged burglar and another one got away by running over the catwalk into Hialeah. Both are juvenile males and committed crimes separately, but police are trying to get one suspect charged as an adult because of the severity of his crimes.

    According to police, a 16-year-old youth who lives in Coconut Grove often came to the area to visit his girlfriend, who is also a juvenile. Most of the crimes attributed to the male occurred in the 700 block of Curtiss Parkway and the 600 block of Eldron Drive.

    Police said the boy was charged with several counts of burglary, occupied burglary, armed burglary for stealing a handgun, trespassing, battery, theft and vehicle theft.

    In one incident, the youth was arrested for throwing a rock through the window of an occupied apartment, causing glass to fall on a 4-year-old girl who was in bed. However, no one was injured. The youth admitted the incident and also said he threw a rock at a resident’s vehicle.

    In one burglary, the youth entered an apartment through a window and stole brass knuckles and car keys. The resident’s 2000 Mitsubishi was later found in front of the youth’s Coconut Grove home. City of Miami Police later reported that the youth had threatened his parents with brass knuckles.

    According to a detective, the youth was brazen in that he would enter a small apartment while residents were asleep and steal anything he could carry, along with car keys. The juvenile would then steal the resident’s car, mainly so he could get to his Coconut Grove home after visiting his girlfriend.

    The juvenile was also charged with burglarizing an apartment on Eldron Drive and stealing a cell phone, tablet, cash and keys to a 2011 Chevy Camaro. The car was stopped on Northwest 36th Street in Doral and three occupants were arrested. One was the juvenile burglary suspect.

    A police report stated that the youth also allegedly entered an apartment in the 400 block of Eldron Drive on Nov. 28 and stole jewelry, a laptop computer, a flat-screen TV and a handgun along with the keys to the resident’s 2010 Hyundai.

    On Nov. 30, Miami Beach Police stopped the vehicle on Collins Avenue and charged the juvenile with grand theft auto. A Springs detective went to the Miami Beach Police Station and questioned the youth. He admitted stealing the car but denied taking any items from the apartment.

    During an investigation, detectives learned that the youth sold the gun to his father and the firearm was found hidden inside an electronic device. Policed asked the state attorney’s office to charge the juvenile as an adult on the gun charge.

    Although recently there has been a rash of burglaries, mostly confined to one area of town and attributed to one suspect, home burglaries are down in Miami Springs from 85 at this time last year to 58. 

    On Dec. 10, police chased an occupied burglary suspect into Hialeah where Hialeah police officers were closing in on the juvenile but were called off to handle an emergency.

    According to a report, at around 11 a.m. a man was watching TV in his home in the 800 block of Wren Avenue when he heard rapping on a rear window. He looked toward the kitchen and saw a youth with hedge clippers poised to hit the window.

    The would-be burglar saw the resident and ran as the resident went outside and saw the boy attempting to get on a bike in the side yard. The juvenile dropped the bike and fled on foot and the resident called police.

    Police officers flooded the area and Sgt. Claire Gurney saw the youth running up the catwalk on North Royal Poinciana Boulevard near Dove Avenue. He had another bicycle but police have no idea where he got it. Gurney yelled for the boy to stop but he jumped on the bike and peddled into Hialeah where he disappeared into a neighborhood.

    Before Hialeah police officers were called to handle a more important incident, one officer identified the suspect from dealing with him on past crimes. A Hialeah police officer later called the youth at home and asked him to turn himself in, but the boy responded with an obscenity and hung up.

    “We’ll get him,” said Miami Springs Detective Harry Mayer. “It’s just a matter of time.”