Santa Monica police arrested a 24-year-old homeless man on Sunday, May 25 after he was seen rummaging through trashcans, but he was later released.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were on patrol in the alley behind the 1400 block of Ocean Avenue at 7 am on this day when they observed a man using both of his arms in order to delve into a trashcan.
This is in violation of a city ordnance that prohibits people from removing items from trashcans (unless the trashcan belongs to a property to which they have domain).
The officers watched as this man dropped trash from the bins into a bag the subject had lying on the ground.
The officers were mindful at that time that the Police Department had received numerous reports of people who had been performing similar acts in the area so they stopped this individual in order to talk with him about the offense.
The subject consented to a search of his clothing and inside his pockets the officers discovered a pipe of the kind used to smoke cocaine.
This man was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, removing items from a city owned trashcan, and a probation violation.
The man was issued a citation and released for medical reasons.
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.
