Bail was set at $20,000 on Friday, Jan. 3 for a 42-year-old Santa Monica man who opened the door of an occupied parked vehicle and tried to steal an expensive wallet.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department responded to the 1300 block of Fifth Street at 11:15 pm on this day after they had been informed via radio that a “suspicious person” was in the area.
When the officers arrived they spoke with the female victim.
This woman told officers she had been sitting in her motor vehicle which was parked at the curb on the east side of the street when a man opened the passenger side door of the vehicle and attempted to grab a $975 Louis Vuitton wallet, containing $140 in cash that was positioned on the passenger seat.
The victim said she had startled the suspect by asking him a question, namely, “what are you doing?”
This question scared the suspect enough that he ran away, sans purse and money.
The victim gave the officers a good description of the suspect and armed with that (as well as their typical kit that includes the X-26 Taser, handgun, handcuffs, and flexi-cuffs) they went in search of the suspect and located him at the intersection of Fifth Street and Broadway.
After the victim had positively identified this suspect he was arrested and charged with grand theft and public intoxication.
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.
