More Suspects Charged in String of a Dozen Fast-Food Burglaries

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Two more people have been charged in a string of about a dozen burglaries at fast food chains up and down Interstate 5 since 2015.

The band of accused thieves have been charged with breaking into three fast-food restaurants in Lewis County in spring of 2015, stealing money from safes, damaging property and generally vandalizing the restaurants while causing significant amounts of damage, according to court documents.

In each case, barring one notable exception, suspects cut through safes with power tools and took thousands of dollars. 

They have also been implicated in a number of similar burglaries up and down the Interstate 5 corridor in Olympia, Kelso, Vancouver and Portland.

Cole Tyler Moon and Joaquin Armenta Jr., both 24 and both of Covington, were charged Monday in Lewis County Superior Court with one count each of second-degree burglary. 

Each is being held on $100,000 bail.

Both are charged in connection to a burglary on May 28, 2015, at the Centralia McDonald’s, in which suspects allegedly entered the restaurant by making a hole in the roof. 

On Friday, Alexis Cardenas, 26, of Black Diamond, was charged with three counts of second-degree burglary and three counts of first-degree malicious mischief. 

Cardenas, accused of being the ringleader of the group, is being held on $300,000 bail.

Morelia V. Ayala Garcia, 19, of Centralia, was also charged Friday with one count of second-degree burglary and one count of first-degree malicious mischief. Ayala Garcia received $25,000 bail.

All four are scheduled to make their next court appearances on Thursday.

Two additional suspects are listed as John Does in court documents. 

Timeline

The Centralia Police Department first became involved in the case on April 4, 2015, when the department received a report of a theft at Centralia’s Arby’s in the 1200 block of Belmont Avenue. 

The responding officer reported finding a safe with a 5-inch by 5-inch hole cut in the side. Metal saw blades were found on the floor, according to court documents. 

The manager of the store responded and confirmed that more than $3,000 was stolen. He also told police that several similar burglaries had been reported at Arby’s locations in Oregon. Detectives followed up and confirmed three Arby’s locations in Portland and Tualatin, Oregon, had been burglarized on Feb. 10, 23 and 27, 2015. 

In the Feb. 10, 2015, burglary, suspects allegedly dumped items from the restaurant into the deep fryer and in the other two, suspects spread soap products throughout the restaurant. 

On May 28, police responded to a report of a burglary at the Centralia McDonald’s in the 1200 block of Lum Road in which suspects gained access by cutting a hole in the roof, then opening the safe with the combination, stealing about $5,700. 

Before leaving, the suspects allegedly put two computers in sinks and turned the water on, then sprayed a fire-extinguisher through the building.

Cardenas was in police custody on another matter at that time. Investigators believe Ayala-Garcia, his girlfriend, who worked at McDonald’s at the time, orchestrated that burglary on his behalf. 

According to court documents, Cardenas called Moon, Armenta, Ayala-Garcia and two other women while he was in jail. In those calls, Cardenas appeared to discuss the burglary. In one call, Armenta allegedly referenced the dollar amount stolen from the McDonald’s.

Cardenas allegedly used the money from that burglary to post bail, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office. 

Just over a week later, on June 7, 2015, an Arby’s in Lacey was broken into, and a safe was opened with cutting tools similar to previous incidents. 

On June 13, police responded to another Lewis County burglary, this time at Wendy’s on Harrison Avenue. 

In that case, police found evidence on a cutting disk leading them to Cardenas, who they learned had been convicted in Pierce County for similar burglaries, most recently one in which he was arrested in 2012 while committing a burglary at a KFC in Maple Valley. He was convicted and released in 2014. 

Armenta was also associated with the 2012 burglary, according to court documents. 

Police continued receiving reports of similar burglaries in Washington along Interstate 5 through the rest of 2015. 

On Feb. 6 of this year, Cardenas was arrested after being caught in a Taco Bell in Olympia, attempting to drill a hole in a safe after cutting a hole in the building’s roof to gain access to the restaurant. 

He was released on $20,000 bail, and arrested by the Centralia Police Department. 

Police tracked cell phones registered to the suspects to areas near the restaurants on the dates they were burglarized, according to court documents. An intelligence analyst with the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area helped analyze the phone data. 

According to court documents, investigators are considering charges of leading organized crime for Cardenas.