Good police work led to the March 6 arrest of a 37-year-old Modesto man charged with burglarizing a local Chevron station.

Ceres Police Department spokesman Lt. Chris Perry said the station had been burglarized early Wednesday, March 6 following a string of burglaries in Ceres with a similar pattern. Information from surveillance video and other evidence led police to develop a suspect and vehicle description. At 11:30 p.m., Officer Eric Souza spotted a van parked in an alley in the 400 block of Bystrum Road which matched the van seen in the Chevron burglary. The officer talked to Jeremie Garcia who was working on the van and could see items stolen from the Chevron burglary along with pry tools and other items similar to those used in that burglary.

Officer Souza detained Garcia, who was out on bail for a prior commercial burglary arrest. The suspect admitted that he was in possession of a “meth pipe.” Officer Souza retrieved the pipe and a baggy of methamphetamine.

Garcia was booked for commercial burglary, possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools and possession of a controlled substance.

Investigators are sifting through evidence in other commercial burglaries in the past few months to see if there is a link to Garcia.