Broken Arrow Police Arrest One, Seek Another In Car Burglaries

Broken Arrow Police have arrested one man and are looking for another in connection with numerous vehicle burglaries along the walking trails by the Creek Turnpike.

Police say for the last couple of weeks thieves were driving through the trails' parking lots, breaking vehicle locks and taking items from vehicles.

Broken Arrow and Tulsa police officers were staking out parking lots along the Riverparks and Creek walking trails last week, and said they caught a man, Kevin Ibarrez, in the act of breaking into a car.

They said they believe he's done nearly 100 of these crimes in the past two months.

Even though they caught him red-handed, they said he got away, but not before slamming into a police car and two other parked cars.

According to police, his lookout, Matthew Moore, 20, was arrested at the parking lot.

"This crime is more common than the violent crimes," Major Mark Irwin of the Broken Arrow Police Department said. "It's a loss of money, insurance doesn't cover it or not, if there's a theft of credit cards, purses, anything of value that's left in a vehicle while you're gone is subject to being stolen."

So many cars were being hit in the past two months, Broken Arrow and Tulsa officers put out bait cars and waited.

"We encourage people never to leave their valuables in their vehicle, whether they are shopping, at the jogging trail, or even going out to eat, because it can happen in a matter of seconds," Irwin said.

Broken Arrow Police said, subsequent to this investigation, detectives served a number of search warrants and recovered a number of items believed stolen from vehicles from Riverside Drive in Tulsa and along the Creek Turnpike corridor in Broken Arrow.

They've provided a list of the recovered items so the owners of the property can get those items returned to them.

Broken Arrow Police Property Log