Hermosa Beach detectives have arrested and charged 23-year-old Navot Luria with misdemeanor counts of possessing burglary tools and violating several professional guidelines established by the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Luria, originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, reportedly entered the United States on a visitor’s visa, prohibiting him from working in the country. Immigration and Naturalization Services officials now have custody of Luria, who was living in the San Fernando Valley, pending his deportation.

“This suspect stole the good reputations of legitimate businesses,” explained Hermosa Beach Press Information Officer Paul Wolcott. “This is the first time anything like this has happened in Hermosa Beach. Any time you enter a location with the intent to commit a crime, the tools you are using to commit the crime are then considered to be burglary tools and you can be charged with their possession.”

Information regarding the fraudulent operation surfaced by way of several locksmith businesses operating in town.

In particular, the owner of Hermosa Lock & Key noticed a recent decline in sales receipts compared to last year’s activity. The owner also told police that he had recently received numerous complaints from his regular customers about the quality of work done at their businesses around town. The owner reviewed his past records and discovered that the work in question had not been performed by his company. The owner then called police about a possible scam.

According to a police investigation, the accused, with the help of an unknown number of accomplices living in New York, allegedly established several fraudulent companies with local telephone numbers that directed the calls of unsuspecting customers to New York. The suspects provided the local 411 information directory with similar sounding names of legitimate South Bay businesses.

In one instance, the suspects created the fraudulent business of Hermosa Beach Lock & Key. The 411 directory would list this business name before listing the actual legitimate business name, Hermosa Lock & Key. Operators in New York would then send a person posing as a locksmith to the customer’s address.

Police officers last weekend scheduled an appointment with one of these operators in New York in the hope of catching the suspect in the act. Detectives told the operator that some minor work had to be done to a vacant house in Hermosa Beach.

Luria reportedly performed the work and charged officers $200 for a job that would usually only cost $100. After Luria’s arrest, detectives discovered additional evidence that he was sending money back to New York. The FBI will now conduct its own investigation in the hope of arresting Luria’s East Coast accomplices.

“This was not some long drawn-out investigation,” Wolcott said. “We acted on the information that we had received and we shut them down. The actual sting took only about an hour. We made the appointment, he performed the job, we paid him and then we arrested him.”

According to the Department of Consumer Affairs, legitimate locksmiths are required to obtain a business license from the city in which they operate, as well as another from the department. Locksmiths are also required by law to complete a work order and identify the customer commissioning the work.