GLENDALE : Suspected Underwear Thief to Go to Trial

A man accused of breaking into the homes of 18 teen-age girls and stealing one or more pairs of underwear from each one’s bedroom could be sentenced to up to 16 years in prison for the crimes.

Luis Castellanos, 19, a former Glendale Community College student, is scheduled to go on trial Friday in Pasadena Superior Court for 19 burglaries police believe he committed over a one-year period.

Known as the “panty bandit” to police, Castellanos was arrested in April in an underwear theft at the home of a female Glendale College student, and later admitted to investigators that he was responsible for a spate of other lingerie thefts, police said.

“During the course of the investigation, he told police that this was not the first female’s home that he had burglarized,” said Agent Rod Brooks, a police spokesman. Police obtained a search warrant and found a plastic bag with 27 pairs of panties at Castellanos’ Montebello home, along with a list of names and addresses of their owners, Brooks said.

Castellanos broke into the victims’ homes while they were away, entering through doggie doors, pried-open windows or sliding glass doors, authorities said. He also stole photographs of the girls whose underwear he stole, according to police reports.

Carol Rash, a prosecutor with the district attorney’s office, said the oldest of the victims was an 18-year-old woman, but most were junior high and high school students. She said Castellanos had obtained the names and addresses of the members of a girl’s soccer team he “had become interested in.”

“We believe this young man proceeded to break into each of their homes,” Rash said. In addition to the 18 charges for residential burglary, Castellanos faces a 19th charge for allegedly breaking into an office at the college, she said. Each charge is a felony, she said.