Construction Worker Helps Nab LADWP Imposter After Suspected Burglary

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A construction worker is being hailed a hero in a Cahuenga Pass neighborhood after he saw something suspicious. Police say he ended up foiling a burglar posing as an LADWP worker Monday afternoon on Multiview Drive.

Laurie Perez spoke with the worker and the grateful homeowner.

"Are you shutting the power off or just the water? Water," Joel Gossman asked through a home security system.

It's not every day a guy who's about to break into a house gets the all-clear from the homeowner.

"Turning the water off, ok very good then, that's good."

But Gossman says unfortunately that's pretty much what's happening in the home security video. He says when his doorbell rang, he was in Las Vegas working. Using the security system, he answered and spoke with a man who said he was from the LADWP. Gossman says he could see a service truck on the street:

Because Gossman recently got a notice from LADWP about shutting off water, the encounter was more believable.

"I see your truck out there, that's fine."

The construction worker who's been working a job across the street for five months, was watching and didn't like what he was seeing.

"Well, he went to the window there's a stairwell down there and I saw him like scoping out the window," the worker said.

The security camera shows the suspect going down the stairs, where police say he broke a window and then was seen coming up with a plastic bag. The worker had already called police, who were waiting.

Police say they caught 20-year-old Robert Holley, of Victorville, down the street with some of Gossman's jewelry still in his pockets. Police say the bag had $35,000 in purses, watches, and jewels.

"These are my friends so I just didn't want him to get away with whatever he was stealing."

Holley has been connected to a second burglary in the area police say.