Santa Monica police arrested a 41-year-old man on Friday, June 6 who was found in possession of stolen debit and credit cards after being stopped for riding through a stop sign without stopping.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department conducted a traffic stop on the bicycle rider who failed to come to a complete stop at a posted stop sign in the 900 block of Michigan Avenue at 2:50 pm on this day.
The officers asked this suspect what his name was so that they could conduct a check in the State database.
The officers then asked the suspect if they could take a peek inside the backpack that the suspect was carrying, and the suspect consented.
The officers discovered a debit card bearing the name of an individual that didn’t correspond to the name of the suspect.
This, the officers concluded, was suspicious, and the officers suspected that this individual was intending to use the debit card in a fraudulent manner.
The officers thus arrested this man of an undisclosed place of residence, and he was charged with possession of a credit card with intent to defraud or sell.
The suspect was taken to Santa Monica jail, whereupon a more thorough search yielded yet another stolen credit card, as well as tools commonly used in the prosecution of automobile burglaries.
After a fingerprint test was performed it came to light that during the course of the early part of this investigation, the suspect had lied to the officers about his name, age and address multiple times.
Subsequently, the man later had additional charges of possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools, possession of an access card with intent to defraud, and giving false information to a peace officer added to his charge sheet.
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.
