A freeway overpass in the San Fernando Valley may seem an unlikely place to discover buried treasure, but that’s exactly where authorities struck pay dirt this week when police received a handwritten map that led them to a cache of stolen valuables by the 118 Freeway.
Police say the hot goods — mainly expensive jewelry — may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars reports the Los Angeles Times.
The suspect, Roberto Caveda, is well known to West Valley police, who arrested him in 2006 for stealing about $15 million in fine art, jewelry and other items.
That haul included a $10-million Edgar Degas painting and $2 million in jewelry. Caveda was convicted of those thefts and preliminarily sentenced to eight to 10 years in state prison.
He is being held at the Twin Towers jail downtown as he awaits final sentencing, said his attorney Mark Bledstein.
Police got the tip — and a detailed, hand-drawn map — from Bledstein. The lawyer said Caveda drew the map recently in his cell. It showed an area where he said he had buried a cache of jewelry near the 118 Freeway at White Oak Avenue.
Read it here: Police find buried loot near 118 Freeway