BOULDER, Colo. -- The Boulder Police Department recently cleared 29 burglaries that occurred at homes and apartments in the city between July 2008 and March 2009.

The investigation resulted in the arrest of five juveniles and one adult. They are accused of stealing nearly $100,000 in property. Another adult suspect remains at large.

The suspects mostly targeted electronics, including televisions, laptops, gaming systems and iPods. In some cases, they tried to determine if anyone was home by knocking on doors under false pretenses. If no one answered the door, they would either force entry or enter the residences through unlocked doors and garages. The suspects often rode their bikes or vehicles around the city at dusk, looking through windows for the illumination of flat-screen television sets.

Investigators were able to make progress in the cases last spring when one of the suspects was arrested. As a result of negotiations with prosecutors, that suspect provided information about the multiple pattern-crime burglaries.

“These types of crimes are some of the more difficult to solve because by design, most burglaries occur when residents are not at home and there are few, if any, witnesses,” said Police Chief Mark Beckner. “These cases were solved as a result of great teamwork and perseverance by our detectives, our crime analyst, our Target Crime Team officers and the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office.”

The department is prohibited by law from releasing the names of the juveniles who were arrested, including the initial suspect who assisted with the investigation. The adults have been identified as Carlos Torres-Castruita and Luis Felipe Padilla-Martinez.

Padilla-Martinez is in custody. Police are still looking for Torres-Castruita. He has ties to the Boulder area and had been working under a false name, date of birth and social security number at a Boulder restaurant. It is believed he may have fled the country.

As a result of this investigation, investigators have been able to recover some stolen items and are in the process of returning them to their owners. There are three items -- a large screen HD television set, a Compaq laptop and a gaming console -- that have not been matched to their owners.

Anyone with information about these items and their possible owners is asked to call the Detective Section at 303-441-3330 during regular business hours.