Santa Monica police arrested a 48-year-old Los Angeles resident on Friday, Jan. 10 who was trying to flee on a Big Blue Bus after stealing clothing from a Sears department store.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to the Sears at 302 Colorado Avenue at 6pm on this day after they had been told of a possible theft that had occurred.
As the officers were en route to the location they were informed that the suspect had been seen boarding a Big Blue Bus, and traveling away from the location.
The officers were able to identify the Big Blue Bus (each bus is numbered for this and other reasons) and it was pulled over at the intersection of Fourth Street and Olympic Boulevards.
The officers boarded the bus and detained the suspect.
The officers waited at that location with the suspect until store security personnel from Sears arrived.
These personnel then identified the suspect as the alleged thief.
The officers subsequently searched this 48-year-old Los Angeles resident, and discovered that he was in possession of various items of clothing that had apparently been purloined from Sears, given that the man could not produce receipts for said items, and that the security staff had alleged that they had seen him take them from the store.
The man was arrested and charged with theft as well as a violation of probation. Bail was set at $10,000.
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.
