'Snake burglar' tied to more than 70 burglaries in Riverside rearrested

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A man police dubbed the ‘snake burglar’ has been rearrested.

The Riverside Police Department says Christopher Michael Jackson, 32, is responsible for over 70 commercial burglaries throughout Riverside since July 2021.

Police dubbed him the "snake burglar," because he typically removes a windowpane to break into a business, and then crawls along the floor to avoid any motion activations alarm systems. He then cuts open the safe and steals money before fleeing. 

Police say he was arrested on numerous occasions, and was recently ordered to serve six sentences of 16 months in jail after pleading guilty to 23 felonies. However, due to jail overcrowding he served less than 10 days.

He was last released from jail in November 2022, and since then police say he victimized several businesses in Riverside, with the most recent one occurring on April 5th in the Orangecrest neighborhood. He was later arrested on April 12th. 

Riverside police are urging local businesses to take caution.

"If when he gets out. You know, unfortunately, as a police department, we're going to start alerting our community that he just got out. He's probably going to have warrants. And you know what? Protect your business. Make sure you've got your security systems, you've got your alarms, your security patrols, whatever you know, and just be aware if you see him. And unfortunately, there's probably a very high likelihood he's going to victimize your business," said officer Ryan Railsback. 

At the time of his most recent arrest, Jackson had seven outstanding felony warrants for his arrest for prior commercial burglaries he committed. He's been booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center and is being held on $100,000 bail. 

"Legislative changes over the past decade, including AB109, Prop 47 and Prop 57, have made it increasingly difficult to ensure the safety of our citizens, but that does not stop our tireless efforts to do so," stated Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez.  "We must, as a community, advocate for ourselves and each other to pressure state legislators to make sound reasonable changes in these laws to protect our residents and businesses.  We do not want more punishment, but we do want more safety.  Safety from being terrorized by habitual thieves feasting on us and on our justice system."

Police say during his booking process, Jackson had methamphetamine on him, therefore, additional narcotics violations were included.