Armed Lake Worth bird burglar tied to multiple thefts across Palm Beach County, police say

A man arrested last week in the theft of $10,000 worth of exotic birds from a Lake Worth Beach home may be the culprit in a string of recent bird thefts across Palm Beach County, deputies say.

Damian Ramallo, 44, was arrested Saturday after deputies watched him throw evidence away in a dumpster, then found several birds at his home, according to a probable cause affidavit.

He is now facing charges in two separate bird burglaries: one in unincorporated West Palm Beach on June 22, in which a parakeet was stolen, and the one in Lake Worth Beach, in which 69 birds were stolen.

Some of the birds were found at Ramallo’s home when detectives executed a search warrant, according to the affidavit. But the location of the rest of the birds remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, detectives are investigating two other bird thefts that occurred in the area in recent weeks, according to the affidavit. One took place on North M Street in Lake Worth Beach, the other in the 800 block of Burch Drive in West Palm Beach, according to Teri Barbera, a spokesperson for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

She could not provide further details on those incidents or say whether they are related.

“It could be, but I don’t know if we made that final determination factually,” Barbera said.

Shortly before 1 a.m. on June 22, Bellaney Lorenzana’s surveillance cameras alerted to her to an unknown man walking around the perimeter of her home on Happy Landings Street in unincorporated West Palm Beach, according to the affidavit. She watched as he looked through her bedroom window, then put gloves on and headed toward the back of her house, where he took her bird cage and her parakeet, worth a total of $80.

Lorenzana told the responding deputy that she wanted to prosecute.

The detective assigned to her case noted that the man wore a camouflage jacket, a baseball cap and gloves, and a balaclava style face mask, according to her surveillance footage.

“A review of law enforcement databases revealed there were at least three other cases involving bird thefts, all within a couple weeks,” the detective wrote in the affidavit.

One of them was the much higher stakes theft in Lake Worth Beach that took place six days later, in which 30 adult and baby cockatoos, four parakeets, 15 canaries and 20 pigeons were taken from their cages, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The victim in that case, Dacyl Valles, also saw an unknown man on her surveillance footage, this time in her backyard, where she keeps her birds, and which is enclosed by a locked gate, according to the affidavit. He had a beard and was dressed in a blue “Delicias Bakery” hooded sweatshirt with a glove on his left hand and a gray neck gaiter, a large bowie knife sheathed at his hip. He left, then returned minutes later in a change of clothes, according to the affidavit.

Surveillance footage from the nearby 7-Eleven convenience store showed him walking away along the alleyway, carrying a large object, “presumably a bird cage,” the affidavit states.

Detectives compared existing pictures of Ramallo to the surveillance footage and were able to identify him as the suspected bird thief, according to the affidavit.

Last Friday, detectives surveilling Ramallo watched him throw the clothes he had worn during the Valles theft away in a garbage bin, according to the affidavit. On Saturday, deputies executed a search warrant at his home in unincorporated Lake Worth, where they found several birds and cages and the bowie knife.

Meanwhile, the detective in the Lorenzana case was able to connect Ramallo to that theft. He had since shaved his beard, the affidavit states.

Ramallo now faces charges of armed burglary and grand theft in the Valles case and felony theft in the Lorenzana case. His next court date is set for July 31.

Only a few of the stolen birds have been recovered, Barbera said Friday.

Ramallo was arrested several times in recent years on felony offenses, court records show. He spent time incarcerated in state prison on various charges, including aggravated assault, grand theft, burglary and attempted burglary and drug-related charges, according to Department of Corrections records.