By ALEXANDRIA BORDAS | Reporter
In broad daylight at 12:45 p.m., Elanee Jarrett knocked on the front door of a home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Pacific Palisades and peered through the windows.
After assessing the situation and concluding no one was home, Jarrett and Evarald Fisher hopped over a side gate and entered the house through a back door.
Approximately 15 minutes later Jarrett and Fisher ran out of the home holding a bag and quickly jumped into a rental car being driven by Donte Caldwell.
Caldwell, Jarrett, Evarald and a fourth accomplice, Chivetta Overstreet, pulled out of the 800 block of Oreo Place in the upper El Medio neighborhood, seemingly free to go.
What the four suspects weren’t aware of was that investigators from the Los Angeles County Major Crimes Bureau were watching their every move on Monday, June 8.
Jarrett, 20, Overstreet, 21, Fisher, 22, and Caldwell, 22, were arrested that afternoon near the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Paseo Miramar for residential burglary after $10,000 worth of stolen property in the form of jewelry, watches and sentimental heirlooms were recovered from the car.
Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Metro Detail Burglary-Robbery Task Force had been conducting an ongoing investigation into a suspected residential ‘knock-knock’ burglary crew that was repeatedly ransacking homes across Los Angeles.
“These suspects derive from South LA and we follow them until they commit a crime so we can arrest them,” LA County Sheriff Sergeant Michael Maher said. “We believe they’ve been working throughout LA, hitting middle-class to upscale residences. That’s their MO.”
Deemed the “knock-knock crew,” the four suspects were known for using rental vehicles to commit knock-knock style residential burglaries and are also believed to be part of an LA-area criminal street gang.
The owner of the house that was burglarized said it was a classic story.
“I left home in a hurry. We have a security system and I closed the door and locked it,” the resident told the Palisadian-Post. “Then the exterminator showed up and I had to go back inside the house. I had to get to physical therapy so I quickly closed the door again and twisted it.”
The homeowner admitted that the door may not have locked all the way.
Shortly after 1 p.m. on June 8, the homeowner received a call that the home’s security alarm had been triggered. Assuming it was a false alarm, he decided to go check on the house himself as opposed to calling the police.
“I came home and saw three SUV pickups parked at different angles in front of the house with flashing red lights inside,” the resident said. “There were four or five undercover sheriffs with long hair and goatees.”
The sheriffs showed the homeowner a video of the suspects leaving the property and asked if he had given permission for them to enter. “I told them I hadn’t,” the resident said, adding that he got really ticked off when he noticed that one of the suspects was wearing a sweatshirt with a logo from his college alma mater.
The detectives next asked the homeowner to go inside his home and see if the house was in the same condition he had left it in.
“I went upstairs and all the drawers were pulled out and the closet was a mess,” the homeowner said. “So I told them no, I didn’t leave it that way.”
After confirming that the home had indeed been burglarized, Task Force tactical deputies stopped the four suspects near Sunset and Paseo Miramar and detained them while they searched the vehicle.
On Wednesday, June 10 the District Attorney’s Office filed Burglary and Criminal Street Gang Enhancement charges against all four suspects and accused them of committing their crimes to benefit a gang.
Overstreet was on bond at the time of her arrest for a recent felony vehicle evasion arrest and had previously been arrested 15 times for felony violations, including illegal possession of a firearm, burglary and possession of stolen property.
Jarrett was on parole for a residential burglary conviction and has multiple felony arrests.
Like Jarrett, Caldwell was also on parole and is a three-strike candidate, previously being arrested for over a dozen felony violations, including illegal firearm possession, burglary and theft.
Suspect Fisher has been arrested on four felony charges: murder, attempted murder, robbery and burglary.
Bail amounts for suspects Fisher, Jarrett, Overstreet and Caldwell are $140,000, $175,000, $1,000,000, and $1,125,000, respectively.
The victimized resident asked the detectives what would likely have happened had he been home at the time of the burglary.
“I have an office upstairs and you can’t hear the door from there,” he said. “The detectives said 90 percent of the time they (the burglars) run, but the other 10 percent of the time it can end badly.”
Sgt. Maher said it wasn’t a surprise this gang ended up in the Palisades and added he has received multiple calls from concerned Palisadians since the high-profile arrest.
“[The knock-knock crew] hit affluent areas that typically have a trusting small community feel,” Maher said. “This is why we reinforce ‘if you see something, say something,’ no matter what the background of the suspicious individual is.”
Major Crimes Bureau Detectives are concerned similar residential-style burglaries have been committed by these suspects throughout the Southland.
If anyone has information related to these specific suspects, please contact Major Crimes Bureau, Detective Tony Valenzuela at (562) 946-7002.
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