Police arrest suspect in burglary of Katie Hobbs’ Phoenix campaign office

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Phoenix police say an arrest has been made in connection to a reported burglary of gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs’ Phoenix campaign office. Daniel Mota Dos Reis, 36, was arrested Thursday after an officer recognized him in surveillance photos shown on 3TV, police records said.

According to police, Reis broke into a commercial building north of downtown Phoenix on Monday night. He took an Apple computer mouse, an Apple keyboard and a black Nikon camera. Police were called the following afternoon after a staff member realized the items were missing. She originally thought it was a prank played on her by her coworkers. The camera belongs to the Democratic Governors’ Association, while the mouse and keyboard belong to the staff member, police said. All three were worth a total of $1180. On Wednesday night, three surveillance photos were released, showing Reis exiting the third-floor elevator, police said.

After seeing a news report on Arizona’s Family on Wednesday night, the Phoenix police officer recognized Reis as a suspect who was arrested earlier in the day on an unrelated burglary of another business. The officer learned Reis was still in jail but about to be released. However, he was re-arrested and reportedly had stolen items that were returned. He was booked into jail on one count of third-degree burglary.

Hobbs, the Democratic nominee, is in a close race against Republican Kari Lake for Arizona governor. The campaign released a statement regarding the burglary Wednesday evening.

The Arizona Democratic Party also released a statement about the incident on Twitter. “Unfortunately, Katie and so many other elected officials are victims of threats and intimidation tactics like this. Make no mistake — this is a direct result of Kari Lake and fringe Republicans spreading lies and hate and inciting violence — and it is despicable,” the party tweeted.

Lake responded to the allegations during a pre-planned event on Wednesday night. “I can’t believe that she would blame my amazing people or blame me for something like that,” said Lake. “I don’t even know where her campaign office is. I’m assuming it’s in a basement somewhere, because that’s where she’s been campaigning.”

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