A Cape Coral teen has been charged in two burglaries after officials say he was involved in the theft of items from the homes of girls he dated.
James Castillo, 17, of 635 S.E. 9th Ave., was charged with two counts of burglary and larceny after he arranged to meet girls away from their homes in the early morning hours for a date, and then coordinated the burglaries while the females were with him, according to Cape Coral police.
The investigation began Aug. 4 after Cape Police responded to a call regarding a burglary in the 3000 block of Southwest 6th Place. The mother of a 16-year-old girl called to report that a laptop computer and scanner/printer had been stolen from her daughter’s bedroom.
The daughter admitted that she snuck out of the residence at around 1 a.m. to meet Castillo, leaving her bedroom window unlocked for re-entry later.
A few days later on Aug. 9, Cape Police were called to 400 block of Southwest 44th Street to investigate a burglary.
The father reported that his daughter and a female friend snuck out of the home through the unlocked bathroom back door at about 3:30 a.m. to meet Castillo. When the girls returned three hours later, the daughter’s bedroom was in disarray and an iPod, camera, cell phone, jewelry and cash were missing. The parents and another daughter were asleep during the burglary.
During the course of their separate investigations, Detective Maris Lebid and Detective Jazmin Correa discovered several commonalities with their cases. The teenage girls and the suspect(s) made arrangements to meet up via MySpace; the burglaries occurred in a very confined time period; and, items were missing only from the girls’ bedrooms. One of the girls told detectives that while she was with Castillo, he continually was texting on his phone. When she asked what he was doing, he was very vague in his response, police said.
Lebid secured a search warrant for Castillo’s phone records and found several messages indicating that Castillo was involved with the burglaries. On Oct. 29, Lebid and Correa met Castillo at Saratoga Park, and he agreed to come to the station for an interview. During the interview, Castillo admitted to facilitating both burglaries and keeping some of the items, police said. He reportedly also told detectives that he sold the laptop for shoes.
Castillo was arrested and transferred to JAC.
The investigation is ongoing.

Source: Cape Coral Police Department