A Los Angeles man, aged 34, was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 14 on a grand theft auto charge after a Santa Monica police car’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) set off a positive reading for a stolen vehicle.
At 8:49 pm officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were driving around and patrolling the area of 20th Street when they were alerted by their ALPR that the device had spotted a vehicle displaying a Colorado license plate that had been reported as being stolen.
The officers conducted a further check and discovered that the vehicle had been reported as having been stolen in Los Angeles.
The officers stopped this vehicle on the north side of Second Street and positively identified the driver as being the suspect who was listed on the theft report.
The officers thus arrested this LA man and he was charged with grand theft auto. Bail was set at $3,500.
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.
