On Friday, Feb. 24, at 1:58 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to Sears, located at 302 Colorado Avenue, after they had received a report of a theft suspect who was being detained by the loss prevention agents employed at the store.
When the officers arrived, they spoke with the loss prevention agents who told them that a woman had entered the store, picked up a handbag that was on display, walked over to the fragrance department, selected her preferred perfume, put it into the handbag, and left the store without attempting to pay for either the handbag, or the perfume.
The loss prevention agents, sensing that something was amiss, had then apprehended this woman outside the store and retrieved the handbag and the perfume. It was at that moment that the loss prevention agents had escorted the woman back into the store and had called the police.
The officers, after hearing the evidence from the loss prevention officers, and perhaps sensing that a conviction was in the bag, arrested this 73-year-old resident of Northridge, and she was charged with petty theft. Her bail was set at $1,000, a sum that is not to be sniffed at in this day and age.
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.
