An El Dorado boy was arrested early Tuesday morning on burglary and theft charges after three burglaries were reported in the same apartment complex following a fire that damaged several apartments.
The boy, 17, faces three felony counts of residential burglary, eight misdemeanor counts of theft of property and curfew violation.
At 12:43 a.m. Tuesday, officers responded to a report that someone had broken into three apartments at Haygood Neal Garden Apartments, 1315 W. First.
Three women told police that someone had broken into their apartments, hours after a fire damaged eight units at Haygood Neal.
The El Dorado Fire Department responded at 5:49 p.m. to a report of a fire at the apartment complex, which is just west of fire substation No. 4, 1415 W. Hillsboro.
Firefighters said a second-floor apartment, 63, was engulfed in smoke and flames when they arrived on the scene, noting that the door was open and smoke was billowing from the door.
Fire crews extinguished fires in the hallway and a bedroom and exterior flames on the back of the building, 1323.
All eight units within the two-story apartment building were damaged by smoke. Apt. 63 and the apartment directly beneath it also sustained heavy water damage, according to a fire report.
Firefighters cleared the scene just after 8 p.m.
The cause of the fire remained undetermined after a lengthy investigation, firefighters said. They noted that a “V pattern” in the hallway pointed toward the area in which the fire appeared to have originated.
A “V pattern” is created by the upward and outward movement of most fires.
The fire report listed the point of origin as the “egress/exit.”
Firefighters said the apartment was not vacant, but they learned the tenant had not lived there for several weeks.
Nearly five hours after firefighters left the scene, El Dorado police were called to Haygood Neal in reference to several burglaries.
Three apartments — 57, 63 and 64, all of which had been damaged in the fire — had been burglarized, according to a police report.
One woman said the suspect, later determined to be the boy, stole $100 worth of dimes from her apartment and another woman reported $100 cash stolen from her apartment.
Both women said the suspect kicked in the front doors of their residences.
The third woman said she had been out of town due to the fire and she could not immediately tell if any items were missing from her residence.
A witness reported seeing the boy leaving building No. 1323 after hearing “what sounded like someone kicking a door.” The witness said the boy then ran behind the building “with something stashed underneath his shirt.”
Another witness provided a similar statement, adding that the boy pulled a blue backpack from underneath his shirt and tossed it underneath a vehicle that was parked nearby.
One of the witnesses reported retrieving the backpack and holding it until officers arrived on the scene.
Officers said they located the boy inside an apartment in building No. 1324 and they were able to determine that the backpack had been stolen from Apt. 62.
Inside the backpack were two BB handguns, which also belonged to a resident in Apt. 62, and three cellphones that had been stolen from Apt. 57, police said.
According to a police report, a shoe print that was on the door in the rear bedroom in Apt. 57 matched the print of the boy’s shoes.
They also said shoe prints were on the doors of two other apartments, 58 and 61, in building No. 1323. A police did not say if the prints also matched the boy’s shoe prints.
The boy was released into the custody of his mother and was scheduled for an appearance Tuesday in Juvenile Court.