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Family With 5 Young Children Flee Apartment After Brazen Break-In, Suspects Arrested

STOCKTON (CBS13) — A broken, boarded-up sliding glass window is one sign of a brazen home invasion robbery at the Village East Apartment complex in Stockton targeting a family with five children.

Shattered glass is still scattered on the ground, after two suspects allegedly climbed up the balcony and broke through the window at around midnight, startling the family of two women and children ages 14, 10, eight, six, and one.

Stockton police say the suspects demanded money from their victims.

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MARIO OCHOA MATTHEW GARCIA - STOCKTON PD
Booking photos for Mario Ochoa (left) and Mathew Garcia (right) (credit: Stockton PD)

Dejonae Jackson lives in the same apartment complex with her young daughter. She said families here are already struggling to make ends meet, without being targeted by criminals.

"These are low-income apartments so how are you coming to low-income apartments expecting to find something," Jackson said. "Obviously we stay here because we don't got much already, you know."

The suspects might have gotten away with their crime if they hadn't returned back to the very same apartment unit later the same night.

Police say the victims left the apartment after the break-in to call the police from the safety of a relative's house. As they were on the call with police, the victims received an alert from their indoor surveillance system app, that the suspects were inside their home again.

Police arrived at the home and arrested the pair after they fled out the window they allegedly broke to get inside.

Matthew Garcia and Mario Ochoa, both 23, are facing burglary and resisting arrest charges.

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"If they came back, like, it was easy the first time," Jackson said. 

Both suspects are facing multiple charges including burglary and resisting arrest.

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