Ny Troung, of Nailbay on Melrose Avenue, repaired damage to his store after the early morning burglary on May 5.  (photo by Edwin Folven)

Police arrested a male suspect for allegedly burglarizing multiple businesses on Melrose Avenue overnight on May 4-5, and are searching for a second man who ran from officers and evaded arrest.

Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Division received a burglary alarm notification around 4 a.m. at Milk Bar in the 7100 block of Melrose Avenue. A short time after arriving, they located two suspects nearby and took one into custody, Detective Raul Lopez said. During the subsequent investigation, officers determined three businesses were burglarized in the 7100 and 7200 blocks of Melrose Avenue, including La La’s restaurant, Milk Bar and Nailbay. The suspects attempted to break into a fourth business but fled when they couldn’t get inside, Lopez added.

The man who police took into custody is 34 years old and is believed to be unhoused. His name was not released pending charges being filed. Lopez said the suspect has an extensive criminal history. The suspect who fled had his face covered and there was no further description.

Ny Troung, owner of Nailbay salon, arrived on the morning of May 4 to find his business had been burglarized.

“They smashed the window. They took the computer and they took the cashier box,” Troung added. “Then they dumped it somewhere, and officers picked it up and they brought it back to us. We didn’t lose anything. Nothing else was stolen.”

Troung said his store was previously burglarized in 2020, and a neighboring store was burglarized last year.

“It’s not a surprise,” Troung said. “We’ve had burglaries in this area before.”

An employee at Milk Bar, located at the southwest corner of Melrose Avenue and Detroit Street, said she arrived in the morning to find the front glass door broken and the cash register missing. The employee, who declined to give her name, said the register is kept empty overnight inside the store.

“They didn’t get anything,” she added. “The way L.A. is … I’m not surprised it happened. Things like this happen around here.”

Lopez said detectives are investigating an unrelated break-in the same night at a restaurant in the 8200 block of Beverly Boulevard. During the Beverly Boulevard burglary, which occurred at the Bao Dim Sum House, security cameras captured footage of two male suspects in hooded sweatshirts with bandanas covering their faces inside the restaurant.  Lopez said investigators reviewed the footage and determined it was not the same two men who committed the burglaries on Melrose Avenue.

Peter Nichols, co-founder of the neighborhood advocacy organization Melrose Action, said the latest burglaries are disheartening, but he added that crime is significantly down in 2026 over the previous year in the Melrose area.

“I’m sorry for the businesses that got broken into, and I also hope it’s not the beginning of a trend,” Nichols said. “But in the grand scheme of things, we are doing incredibly well. The state of the street is remarkably better.”

Lopez encouraged business owners to take measures to prevent burglaries, including installing bright lights and alarm systems, and using shatter-proof film on windows to make them harder to break.

Anyone with information about the burglaries is urged to call detectives at the LAPD’s Wilshire Division at (213)933-8205 or (213)473-0476.