Palisades Mom Suspected in Burglaries

Police Say Suspected Burglar Ran a Local Landscaping Business

Now used for restaurant storage, the bright green building at 140 Entrada Drive in Santa Monica Canyon no longer has the earthy-chic façade of its previous proprietor.

The small structure once housed Grow Landscape Design. But the orange-colored paint and Buddha statue at its entrance disappeared about six months ago along with its owner – Jami Lynn Burrows.

Burrows, a former Pacific Palisades resident, is suspected of being involved in multiple burglaries in the Palisades and Malibu areas, police said in a news release.

Detectives from the West LAPD division arrested Burrows on Sept. 17 after witnesses identified her on store surveillance video trying to purchase items with stolen credit cards, according to the LAPD.

Police also served warrants at her Porterville home the day she was jailed, recovering stolen items ranging from jewelry to designer handbags.

A Long List 

Serialized items recovered at her Tulare-county home in Porterville, located about 160 miles from the Palisades, were tied to local burglaries, police said.

Burrows’ Pacific Palisades client list, obtained by the Palisadian-Post, indicates she had customers in several neighborhoods, stretching from Greentree Road in Rustic Canyon to the Highlands. 

An analysis by the Post revealed that multiple burglaries were committed either on the same block or within less than a one-mile radius of more than 95 percent of her listed Palisades clients.

Police have not released the exact locations of the homes targeted but said she faces multiple counts of burglary for crimes in the Palisades and Malibu areas.

Little Green Building

Detectives also served a search warrant at the location of the former landscape business at 140 Entrada Dr., said Eric Hoffman, an employee at nearby Patrick’s Roadhouse, who saw the court order.

Detectives told the Patrick’s Roadhouse employee the warrant was in relation to an ongoing investigation into multiple local burglaries, Hoffman said.

Hoffman said  he remembered Burrows using the building for storage when she previously rented the location but never knew her personally.

Patrick’s Roadhouse has been using the building for storage since Burrows shuttered her storefront and moved out about six months ago, said Hoffman. A neighboring business owner confirmed the timeline.

The Landscaper 

Burrows, described by friends as a slender blonde, lived in several neighborhoods in the Palisades and nearby Topanga areas, said Aaron Ware, a Sunset Mesa native and former UCLA football player.

A former business partner and employee of Burrows, Ware said he too was duped by the hazel-eyed mother of two when he entered into an agreement to purchase Grow Landscape Design.

Out of college for two years and looking for direction in life, Ware said he met Burrows through family friends who lived in the same Sunset Mesa neighborhood as his parents.

“She totally changed after I gave her the money,” Ware said. “I was working as part of the maintenance crew and thought it would be a good way to enter the business.”

Ware had planned to purchase the business and work with Burrows to learn the ropes, but soon realized it was a big mistake.

“She took vacations and spent all the money,” Ware said, adding that Burrows traveled to South America and became enamured with Ayahuasca, a psychedelic hallucinogen commonly called “yagé.”

In addition to becoming “less interested” in the business, “she would just make numbers up and invoice people twice,” he said.

Plans to Grow 

When Burrows returned from South America, she wanted to start growing or importing the Peruvian hallucinogen, Ware said, adding that she was already selling marijuana to her affluent clients.

Burrows knew a Shaman in Hawaii with whom she wanted to start a yagé operation.

“She was into this weird spiritualism,” Ware recalled.

He remembered when he first discovered Burrows’ side business.

“I saw this bong in the backyard of one of our older clients,” Ware said. “She did it on the side and told me the client was sick and needed it.”

Ware said that Burrows had a friend near Porterville in Tulare County with a marijuana farm. Another friend of Burrows, who asked to remain anonymous, also shared the same details and timeline.

“She maxed out the credit cards I got for the business and ruined my credit,” Ware said. “Most of the transactions took place in Tulare County.”

Clearer in Hindsight 

Ware said he should have never trusted Burrows.

After hearing about her arrest, Ware recalled one of Grow Landscape Design’s clients in Malibu was burglarized earlier this year.

At the time, Ware said he didn’t think anything of it. But looking back, he remembered the client owned three large, intimidating dogs that always barked at strangers.

“There is no way that someone the dogs didn’t know could break in like that,” he said.

She also stole from some clients in Bel-Air by taking money out of the account they had for landscaping and then charged them again, said Ware, who now owns his own business.

“I learned to never partner with or trust anyone again,” Ware said. “I just want my credit fixed now.”

He has been trying to track her down since June, he added.

Burrows was released on $100,000 bail from jail the same day as her arrest and is facing felony charges, according to jail records. She has a court hearing scheduled in L.A. on Oct. 8.