Two men accused of stealing high-end electronics to sell online, including from Palo Alto businesses, will be prosecuted by the state, California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced Friday, Aug. 31.

Justin Mahlet, 37, of Sacramento and Jason Tate, 41, of Rocklin were arraigned in Placer County Superior Court on 17 felony counts of burglary. The thefts resulted in losses of $400,000 in stolen goods and property damage, according to the attorney general's office.

Mahlet and Tate, who pleaded not guilty, turned themselves in on July 13 and July 19 and were released on $105,000 and $50,000 bail respectively.

The Attorney General's eCrime Unit will prosecute the case because the defendants allegedly committed the commercial burglaries in five Bay Area counties and used eBay to fence the stolen goods. The investigation was conducted by the Palo Alto Police Department and the Sunnyvale Police Department, Harris' office said.

Between December 2010 and September 2011, Mahlet and Tate allegedly burglarized more than a dozen electronic retailers in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Solano counties. Among the items stolen were a $40,000 GPS device for land surveying, amplifiers valued at $10,000, cameras valued at $4,000 each, and other expensive goods.

The men allegedly broke into Bear Images Photographics, Inc., a Palo Alto professional photography- and digital-imaging-equipment supplier located at 417 Lambert Ave. They hit the company on Feb. 7 and Aug. 3, 2011, according to the complaint.

In March and September 2011, they also burglarized VMI, Inc., a supplier of visual imaging, security, streaming, and videoconferencing products located in Sunnyvale, according to court papers.

During the September burglary, officers from the Sunnyvale Police Department responded to a commercial alarm and saw the men exiting the building with items. Mahlet and Tate attempted to flee in their vehicle but were arrested. Detectives later obtained search warrants for their homes and a storage rental unit in Rocklin. Investigators found numerous electronic items from the burglaries.

Detectives also uncovered eBay accounts associated with the men and found high-end electronic items listed for sale that matched items missing from the burglaries, according to Harris' office.

Harris created the eCrime Unit in 2011 to identify and prosecute identity-theft, cybercrimes and other technology-related crimes.

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