On Thursday, May 24, at 1:56 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department who were on patrol in downtown Santa Monica monitored a report of a petty theft at the Santa Monica Public Library.
Apparently a man was using some bolt cutters to remove the cable lock from a bicycle that was parked outside the bibliotheca.
As the officers were en-route they heard via their radio that the man had failed to accomplish his task of stealing the bicycle and had given up trying to cut the cable lock.
This man had, they heard, put the bolt cutters into a backpack that he was carrying and left the scene.
When the officers approached the library they looked around the building, but could not find the suspect.
The officers then widened their search and spotted a man who fit the description of the suspect walking on Seventh Street near Reed Park.
The officers stopped and questioned this man. They asked him if he had come from the library, to which he answered “yes.”
They then asked if he had bolt cutters and if he had used them to attempt to cut the cable lock of a bicycle outside the library, again he replied in the affirmative to both questions.
The officers then asked if they could look in his backpack, and once more he said “yes.”
The officers found the bolt cutters and arrested this 49-year-old resident of Hawthorne and took him off to jail where he was charged with possession of burglary tools.
His bail was set at $500.
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.
