A 22-year-old Venice man was arrested on Friday, June 13 after being caught stealing a fire extinguisher then trying to break into a utility vehicle.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to an apartment complex located in the 2600 block of Kansas Avenue at 2:37 am in order to investigate a report of two men who were attempting to remove a fire extinguisher from the building.
Upon arrival the officers met with the reporting party who told them that the suspects had left, but this caller did give the officers a description of one of the individuals, as well as the direction in which the person had fled.
The officers returned to their vehicle and drove in the direction suggested by the caller and within a few moments noticed a man who fit the description of the suspect.
The officers noticed that this man was in the process of attempting to force open one of the doors of a utility truck.
The officers stopped and exited their vehicle.
This man looked at the officers and armed himself with a metal pipe that was on the ground next to him.
The man then adopted an aggressive, fighting style posture, holding the metal pipe above his head in a threatening fashion.
After several commands from the officers the man eventually dropped the pipe and was detained by the officers.
The officers then contacted the owner of the utility truck who confirmed that he did not know this man and also that the man had no business attempting to open the door of said utility truck.
The door handle of the utility truck was slightly damaged.
The officers later discovered that this individual was on probation for a misdemeanor offense.
This man was arrested and charged with receiving stolen property, violation of probation, and tampering with a vehicle. 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.
