( CNN ) -- People put their newspaper delivery on hold when they go on vacation to avoid a pile of papers on the driveway , advertising their absence to burglars . But for dozens of Californians , that pre-emptive move backfired . Badly . Armed with stolen lists of vacationing subscribers , a troupe of burglars ransacked at least 25 Los Angeles-area homes to the tune of $ 1 million over a period of three years , authorities said . The team stole computers , jewelry , musical instruments and even collectible swords , the Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Department said . The scheme started when 51-year-old Duane Van Tuinen , an office machine repairman , was contracted by distributors of the Los Angeles Times to repair equipment , officials said . Once inside the businesses , investigators said , Van Tuinen repeatedly stole lists of Los Angeles Times subscribers who asked their newspaper delivery be put on hold while they went on vacation . Van Tuinen passed the lists on to three others who carried out the burglaries , the sheriff 's department said . Three other men -- Randall Whitmore , 43 ; Joshua Box , 43 ; and Edwin Valentine , 52 -- are suspected in the burglary ring . Charges were pending as investigators tried to locate as many victims and identify as many of the burglaries as possible , officials said . Detectives recovered hundreds of pieces of stolen property from dozens of residential burglaries . According to the Times , the burglars allegedly stole $ 1 million worth of property . `` Although much of the stolen property has been returned to the rightful owners , we are still trying to locate additional victims , '' Detective Jack Jordan of the Major Crimes Bureau said . The Times said it has launched an internal review and has cooperated with the sheriff 's department . `` Our customers can rest assured that no financial information was involved and that these robberies , while terribly unfortunate , are likely limited to a small section of the vast area we cover , '' Director of Communications Hillary Manning said in a statement . But going forward , the newspaper said it will no longer share vacation information with distributors . New York Times says Chinese hackers broke into its computers .
Four men are accused of using lists of vacationing subscribers for dozens of burglaries . Thieves reportedly stole $ 1 million in property , including computers , jewelry and swords . Score: 6 The paper says it will no longer share vacation information with distributors .