Two young men in their early 20s were arrested on Thursday, Oct. 17 after Santa Monica police discovered them in a stolen 2001 Nissan Xterra.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department who were on patrol in a westbound direction on Santa Monica Boulevard at Seventh Street were alerted at 4:30 pm on this day when their LoJack Recovery System signified that a stolen vehicle was nearby.
The officers confirmed the alert with dispatch and discovered that the stolen vehicle was in fact a 2001 Nissan Xterra that had been taken from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southwest Division.
The officers traced the signal and came upon the stolen vehicle.
It was parked in the 800 block of Alley Number Four, and contained people.
The officers requested backup so that they could conduct a “high-risk stop” on the vehicle (a high-risk stop is a stop that poses a significant risk to the officer when dealing with the occupants of a motor vehicle.
Situations that may fall into this category are known or suspected felons, an armed individual or any potentially dangerous person).
When the extra officers arrived at the scene the occupants of the vehicle were ordered out.
Two men thus exited this vehicle.
The officers, based upon the facts that the vehicle was reported as stolen, and that these two men had been driving it, arrested them both on suspicion of vehicle theft.
After the officers had transported these men to the jail they discovered more information about the original case and as a result both of these suspects, one aged 22, and from Los Angeles, and the other aged 20, also from Los Angeles, were charged with carjacking.
The 20-year-old was also charged with a violation of probation resulting in a denial of bail, whilst the 20-year-old was granted bail of $100,000.
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.
