Date:  Friday, February 20, 2009
Time:  2:41:01 PM
Department Contact: Richard Wood
Phone:  823-6060

Details:

At 9:21 pm on 2/17/09, Deputies from Tehachapi Substation responded to a report of a burglary that just occurred at Witt’s, an office supply store on Brian Way in Golden Hills.  On arrival, Deputies found a glass front door to the business had been smashed with a rock. A review of a security video supplied by store employees showed two white male adults breaking into the store and carrying out a large gumball machine and a vending machine that dispenses stick-on children’s decals. The video showed the suspects leaving in a white Subaru Forester with a luggage rack and distinct black trim down each side.

At 8:10 pm on 2/19/09 Deputy Josh Nicholson stopped a matching white Subaru Forester on Westwood Blvd in Golden Hills for inoperable tail lights and missing registration tabs. Subsequent investigation determined the driver of the Subaru, 27 year-old Justin Cobb was one of the suspects in the burglary. During the detention of Cobb, 29 year-old Jason Burhen kept calling him on his cell phone.  Deputies determined Burhen was the second suspect in the burglary. He was arrested at his residence in Golden Hills.

Both Cobb and Burhen are Tehachapi residents and are on state parole. Deputies arrested both of them for burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime and parole violation. They are being held without bail at Kern County Jail. The stolen vending machines were recovered in damaged condition in a field near the intersection of Meadows Road and Moon Drive in Golden Hills. Loss in coins is estimated somewhere between $50.00 and $80.00. Stallion Springs Police assisted in this investigation.