On Saturday, Jan. 21, at 8:53 a.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department heard, via radio transmission, that vandalism had occurred at the US Bank, located at 3302 Pico Boulevard.
The officers went there to investigate. When they arrived, officers spoke with an employee of the bank who said that when she had arrived for work that morning she had noticed that the ATM machine’s screen had been smashed. The employee had then cast her gaze downwards, and had seen a City of Santa Monica Citation on the ground.
This citation had been issued to a local resident for drinking in public next to the ATM machine. The officers then reviewed the video surveillance tape and saw film of the man who had smashed the screen.
The video also revealed that this man had thrown the citation on the ground. The citation obviously had the man’s name and address on it, so this was not a hard case to crack. The officers went to this man’s address but he wasn’t in, so they continued with other police work. At approximately 10:25 a.m. that same morning, the officers recognized this man walking along Third Street Promenade.
The officers kept an eye on him as he continued to walk northbound on the Promenade and intercepted him in the 1300 block of the Third Street Promenade.
The officers took him into custody and this 59-year-old Santa Monica resident was charged with felony vandalism. His bail was set at $20,000.
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 of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
