This Week in Crime: Blue Plaid Shorts, White Collar Crime, House Parties, and Other Crimes Against Fashion and Humanity

Car thefts, house parties, assaults on police officers, and some awful blue plaid shorts. All in all, a typical week or two in Reston crime.

Let's start with the car larceny, shall we?

Police responded to the 2200 block of Sanibel Drive on Friday, April 30 around 11:26 p.m. for a vehicle tampering. A 35-year-old man saw someone inside his vehicle. Officers located the suspect walking nearby and an investigation determined he was in possession of stolen property. The suspect fled on foot and was not apprehended. He was described as Hispanic, between 20 and 22 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 150 pounds, with short brown hair. He was wearing a red windbreaker and blue, plaid shorts.

Talk about a fashion crime! Anyhoo, onward to the next bit of tomfoolery at the Hunters Woods Shopping Center.

On Sunday, May 2 around 5:17 p.m. an officer located an intoxicated man in the 2200 block of Hunters Woods Plaza. The suspect was arrested for drunk in public. While inside the police cruiser, the suspect allegedly kicked a window out causing injury to an officer. [A 48-year-old resident of] Barrel Cooper Court in Reston, was also charged with assault on a law enforcement officer and destruction of property.

Meanwhile, a house on Ridgegate Drive was the site of a hell of a party:

A home in the 12500 block of Ridgegate Drive was burglarized some time between 1 p.m. on Friday, April 23 and 11 a.m. on Sunday, April 25. An investigation determined a party took place at the home and several walls were significantly damaged. Police continue to investigate.

Could be worse. At least no one got beat up during that burglary:

A man was arrested for burglarizing a home in the 11100 block of Harbor Court and assaulting a 35-year-old man around 9:35 p.m. on Monday, April 26. An Arlington man was arrested, taken to jail and charged with assault and battery and burglary with the intent to commit assault.

And from blue plaid shorts we go to an appalling case of white-collar crime, where a Winchester man embezzled more than $1.1 million from a Reston IT firm:

Shortly after Jose "Tony" Gutierrez began working as an accountant for Transition Partners, a Reston IT consulting firm, he began stealing thousands of dollars from the company. He hid his work well, and the company couldn't figure out where its money was going.

One by one, the 40-employee company had to begin laying off longtime workers. But Gutierrez kept stealing, court records show. His jobless former colleagues, who all liked Gutierrez and never suspected him, began dipping into their retirement funds and ignoring medical needs.

And Gutierrez kept stealing.

Finally last year, a co-worker discovered his scheme. Soon, Transition Partners realized Gutierrez had embezzled more than $1.1 million, forcing 10 people to be laid off and driving the company to the brink of insolvency. He was arrested and soon confessed to the embezzlement.

Gutierrez spent nearly $300,000 renovating a Porsche sports car, court records show, as well as $187,000 on home improvements, cars for his wife and teenage daughter and nearly $48,000 on vacations.

Meanwhile, a former co-worker in his early 60s, with four children ages 15 to 22, was laid off, forcing him to deplete his 401(k) retirement fund, ignore medical needs and stop helping his children with college costs, Pettibone told Roush.

On Friday, Gutierrez was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Fairfax County judge, who called the incident "the worst case of embezzlement I've ever seen."

The 10-year term is unusual for a white-collar defendant in Fairfax, where large embezzlements frequently net scant jail time -- state sentencing guidelines called for probation for Gutierrez. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush also ordered Gutierrez to repay the entire $1.1 million to Transition Partners.

"I'm truly sorry," Gutierrez told Roush. "My ethical compass just stopped working and I became lost."

Apparently so.