A Santa Monica panties thief was arrested on Monday, May 26 after hidden camera footage caught him in the act of rifling through an underwear drawer.
This story began on Tuesday, May 20, when officers of the Santa Monica Police Department responded to a residence in the 800 block of 12th Street in order to investigate a report of a burglary.
Upon arrival the officers spoke with the victim who told them that she had set up a clandestine camera in her house after noticing that certain items of clothing were missing.
She said that she had just returned from a trip and had watched the video recordings from the camera that had been made in the meantime.
She said that she had watched as, on Saturday, May 17, a man had entered her bedroom and rifled through her underwear drawer.
This man had removed several items of underclothing and inserted them into a bag he had brought with him.
She told the officers that she recognized the man as a long-time acquaintance, however hastened to add that there had never been any romantic relations between them.
Detectives from the Santa Monica Police Department conducted a follow up and arrested the man shortly afterwards.
The detectives also discovered several other items of underwear belonging to four other victims.
This 42-year-old Santa Monica resident was charged with burglary and bail was set at $50,000.
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.
