CCSO: Serial Cameron County church burglar busted, arrested

BROWNSVILLE, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — The Cameron County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man for allegedly stealing from a local church.

On August 22, the staff at the San Felipe De Jesus Church, in Cameron Park, contacted the Cameron County Sheriff’s Office to report an attempted burglary at their church.

Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the call and were able to obtain surveillance footage of an unidentified man attempting to break in. He was unsuccessful in doing so. He did, however, cause damage to the door and window.

Two days later investigators were at the San Felipe de Jesus Church conducting their investigation when they were told by staff that the same suspect had returned earlier that day.

The man allegedly entered through one of the church’s storage buildings and stole several weed eaters and lawn mowing tools.

Investigators watched surveillance footage and observed that it was the same man who attempted to break in two days prior.

While authorities knew it was the same suspect, due to him wearing the same clothing and having the same physical descriptors, they could not get a good angle of his face in the video to fully identify him.

Investigators came back to the San Felipe de Jesus Church two days later to learn that the same suspect had allegedly broken in again to steal more lawn equipment.

This time, surveillance footage showed a better angle of the suspect’s face and Sheriff’s Investigators were able to identify him as 37-year-old Daniel Chavez, a known burglar from Cameron Park.

On August 27 Sheriff’s investigators in coordination with detectives with the Brownsville Police Department who were also investigating other burglaries at the Iglesia de Rios de Agua Viva, in Brownsville, found and arrested Chavez at his residence. He was wearing the same clothing that he was wearing during the burglaries to both churches.

Chavez admitted to burglarizing the churches, according to authorities.

He was formally charged with two counts of burglary of a building, a state jail felony, and one count of criminal mischief, a class B misdemeanor. He also acquired additional charges by the Brownsville Police Department for the cases he had with them.

Most, but not all of the stolen items were recovered by investigators.

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