On Friday, April 8, at 9:10 p.m., officers went to the 100 block of Palisades Avenue regarding a burglary report. When they arrived they spoke with the victim who told them that on April 4 she had gone away on a business trip. When she returned on April 8, she had entered her apartment and discovered that the suspect, a woman, had decided to move into her apartment without her permission. In fact, the victim had never met the suspect prior to discovering her in the apartment on that day.
The officers then spoke with the suspect who told them, unequivocally, that she had in fact lived in the apartment for 25 years. Clearly the officers recognized this story to be a flight of fancy, so they arrested the suspect, a 46-year-old woman of Los Angeles, and charged her with burglary, due to the use of utilities (water, power, and gas), and consuming the victim’s food. Her bail was set at $50,000.
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.
