On Friday, May 25, at 1:40 a.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the area of the 2600 block of Neilson Way after receiving a report of three men who had stolen a bottle of whisky from a local restaurant on the 2600 block of Main Street.
Apparently the manager of the restaurant had attempted to invite them to pay for the whiskey, but this trio had ignored him and left the eatery.
The manager had then followed them and informed them that he was going to call the police.
At that point one of the men grabbed the manager’s iPhone and threw it across Main Street. Suffice to say the iPhone suffered serious damage.
These three whiskey takers then fled westbound on Ocean Park Boulevard towards the beach parking lots.
The officers found these three men and took them back to the restaurant whereupon the restaurant manager as well as other employees who had witnessed the incident positively identified them.
The officers looked at the three men and happened to notice that two of them were heavily intoxicated.
They both stank of alcohol and they both displayed the signature red and watery eyes.
One of the officers had found the iPhone and noticed that the screen was totally shattered and the casing was cracked as well.
The damage was estimated at about $600. Since the damage was in excess of $400 the first suspect, a 45-year-old Venice resident, was charged with felony vandalism (bail amount not available), while the other two, a 31-year-old Marina del Rey resident, and a 35-year-old Los Angeles resident, were charged with public intoxication.
They each had bail set at $250.
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.
