On Sunday, March 27, at 12:07 p.m. officers went to the Vons market, located on the 1300 block of Wilshire Boulevard, in order to attend to a theft suspect who was in custody there. When the officers arrived at the location they spoke with the loss prevention agent who told them what had occurred.
Apparently two men had entered the store, and one of the men had placed a 30 can case of beer into a shopping cart. The man then walked through the store, past the registers, and exited, closely followed by the second one, who was pushing the cart with the beer in it. The loss prevention agent had followed the one with the cart and apprehended him outside. The leader of the (30) pack had fled the scene by then.
Officers took custody of the suspect (sans beer), and charged this 48-year-old Santa Monica man for burglary, and also a violation of probation. He was not eligible for bail.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com