Santa Monica police arrested a 19-year-old homeless man on Thursday, Aug. 29 after a fingerprint connected him to the theft of a truck.
This story starts on July 28 when, at 1:30 am, a citizen who resides in the 1400 block of Sixth Street parked his Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in the subterranean garage of his apartment building.
The citizen returned to his garage the next day at 11 am to go to work, but discovered his truck was gone.
The citizen then called the police and reported the theft of the vehicle.
Two days later on July 31, an officer on patrol in a police vehicle drove past the parked aforementioned Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, which set off a stolen vehicle notification on the police vehicle’s automated license plate recognition system.
Forensic experts from the Santa Monica Police Department were able to process the vehicle and retrieve a latent fingerprint.
This fingerprint identified a suspect and a “want” was issued for his arrest in connection with the theft of the vehicle.
On Thursday, Aug. 29, at 6:45 pm officers of the Santa Monica Police Department who were in an unmarked car driving along Lincoln Boulevard recognized the suspect at the corner of Cedar Street and apprehended him.
This homeless man was arrested and charged with the theft of the vehicle and burglary.
Bail was set at $50,000.
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.
