Shawn DeCosta

A South Lake Tahoe man suspected of burglarizing two local restaurants was arrested Tuesday.

Shawn DeCosta, 49, was taken into custody in connection with the Jan. 4 burglary at IHOP and is a suspect in the burglary at Blue Angel Café. A window was smashed at the pancake house, according to police Lt. Brian Williams.

Blue Angel was burglarized twice — Dec. 30 and Jan. 4. Each time the suspect got a couple hundred dollars, according to owner Jeff Cowen.

“The damage cost more than the take,” Cowen told Lake Tahoe News. He added that a person fitting DeCosta’s description was asked to leave the restaurant about a week before the first break-in.

DeCosta was identified from surveillance cameras at IHOP.

He may also be responsible for a burglary at Tahoe Hemp Co. in 2015, as well as being a suspect in recent incident where a teenage cyclist was jumped on the bike path near Wildwood Avenue.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report