Santa Monica police arrested a man and a woman on Friday, May 30 after finding them in possession of drugs, weapons, and a stolen ID and checkbook used to purchase items on the Third Street Promenade.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department who were engaged in a burglary suppression detail observed a tan Buick traveling northbound toward them at 7:35 pm on this day.
They noticed that the vehicle contained a male passenger and a female driver.
They also noticed that the license plate had a plastic cover over it.
This is a violation of Vehicle Code 5201(f).
The officers followed this vehicle and performed a traffic stop in the 1000 block of 24th Street.
The officers approached the vehicle and spotted an open beer bottle on the floor between the male passengers legs.
The officers asked both occupants to exit the vehicle and searched them. During the search, officers found a dagger on the passenger’s belt and discovered he had been sitting on flashlight.
While searching the vehicle, the officers found several “baggies” of what later proved to be methamphetamine in the glove compartment and in the trunk.
They also found a digital scale in the trunk, along with a blank checkbook and a California driver’s license with the driver’s photo on it, but a different name and date of birth.
A receipt the officers subsequently discovered in the vehicle also showed the driver had made a purchase at a store on the Third Street Promenade using the fake ID and one of the checks.
The officers arrested the driver; a female, aged 50, from Los Angeles (bail set at $50,000) and a male, aged 44 of Culver City (bail set at $30,000).
They were charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession for sales, forgery, identity theft, open container, and probation violation.
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.
