Gotcha
Thursday, July 16. The Santa Monica Police Department’s “Traffic Safety Unit” conducted a special deployment with additional resources throughout the City of Santa Monica. Traffic officers paid special attention to crosswalks and intersections, in an attempt to encourage compliance with the law regarding yielding to pedestrians in a crosswalk. This operation was a result of complaints by members of the community, and reports of collisions. Officers issued 120 citations whilst conducting enforcement at the following locations: 1400 2nd. Street, Ocean and Alta, Main and Hollister, Main and Pier, 4th and San Vicente, 16th and Montana, 16th and Santa Monica, 18th and Wilshire, 18 and Ocean Park, 10th and Pico, 22nd and Pico, 31st and Pico.
Corn Nuts
Thursday, July 16, 11:40 p.m. Officers drove to Star Liquor, located at the 1600 block of Main Street because they had received a report of the shopkeeper having a fight with another man outside the liquor store. When they arrived they saw the shopkeeper chasing the other guy along the 200 block of Pico Boulevard, so they stopped them, and got the low-down from the shopkeeper on what had happened, and here’s how it went: The shopkeeper was in the shop when this other guy walked in, and grabbed a bag of corn nuts. The guy then began to walk out, so the shopkeeper confronted him. This guy threatened to “mace” the shopkeeper if he tried to prohibit his escape with his nuts. The guy began to run, but this spunky shopkeeper gave chase, so the corn nut criminal drew the mace, and repeated his threat. The officers decided that that was enough, and arrested this 30-year-old white male, and booked him for robbery. The mace was taken from him, as were the corn nuts, valued, incidentally, at the princely sum of just $0.99.
No Time For That
Saturday, July 18, 8:19 p.m. Officers responded to the 1700 block of the beach bike path because a woman had reported being robbed. When they arrived they spoke to the woman in question, who informed them that she had been approached by a guy who had asked her the time. She had removed her cell phone in order to discover the requested information from the clock that all cell phones possess, and as she was doing so, this man grabbed the phone, and fled in the direction of the pier. The victim went to the pier in order to find this guy, and also to inform the police. She did indeed see this guy, making a phone call, on her phone! Perhaps she thought that two can play at that game, so SHE grabbed the phone from him, and rushed to the Santa Monica Police sub-station located on the pier, and told them what had occurred. In no time at all the police had spotted this man, a male black aged 19, and arrested him and booked him for robbery.
Groceries
Thursday, July 16, 2:01 p.m. Officers received a report of a theft from the Ralph’s supermarket, located at the 1600 block of Cloverfield Boulevard. Upon arrival, the store security agent told the officers that the suspected thief, a white male, aged 33, had placed a number of items, with a value totaling $117.29, into a black plastic shopping hand cart, entered the bathroom in the store and, hey presto, exited the bathroom with the items now contained within two brown plastic shopping bags. This fellow then left the store without paying for the items, whereupon the security agent apprehended him, and began to escort him back into the store. Suddenly, this guy took off in order to make an escape with his booty, but two additional male security agents sprung into action, and put paid to his attempt to escape. Officers arrested this man, and took him to jail where he was charged with burglary.
