Dogs seized at home of robbery suspect
35 are found living in squalid conditions when police search Corona man’s house.
Authorities say they discovered 35 dogs — many of them emaciated and ill — living in squalid conditions in the home of a 72-year-old man suspected in a Corona bank robbery.
Animal waste coated the soggy, decaying floors in the home, where wooden and metal skeletons remained of what once were couches and chairs, police said. The home had no power.
Animal control officers rescued the dogs, seven of which were small puppies, and took them to the Corona Animal Shelter to be fed and evaluated in quarantine. One was euthanized due to extreme illness, which included several open wounds. Many had long toenails and were covered in grime.
“It appears that they were locked in the home, all day and night, every day,” said Senior Det. Andy Bryant, noting it took over an hour to coax the dogs out.
“They were very, very scared,” he said. Now, there’s “not a peep” in their area of the shelter.
“Over all the years of my career, this is by far the worst call I have ever been to,” Animal Control Officer Bill Sellers said in a statement. “I have never witnessed this level of blatant neglect.”
The dogs’ owner, Robert Bustamante Flores, was booked on suspicion of robbery. Animal cruelty charges were pending.
Police say that about a month ago, Flores entered Pacific Western Bank wearing a duct-taped baseball cap. He gave a teller a note demanding money and left with a couple of thousand dollars, Bryant said.
This week, Flores showed up at the police station. He never had a chance to say why, police said, because detectives recognized his car — a beat-up Buick Roadmaster — in the parking lot and asked him about the heist.
Investigators had already identified him as a possible suspect based on surveillance footage captured near the bank.
Detectives questioned Flores about the robbery, then obtained a search warrant for his home. He told them 26 dogs lived in his house and he stayed in the garage.
Investigators, along with four animal control officers, searched the home, where they found the animals as well as evidence related to the robbery, police said.
Flores was being held in lieu of $30,000 bail.
The dogs will be available for adoption on Aug. 12. The news sparked an outpouring of support, with residents donating food and money to the Corona Police Community Partnership to help care for the dogs.
Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Det. Mario Hernandez at (951) 279-3659.