A bicycle thief was arrested on Saturday, Jan. 3, after Santa Monica police on patrol in downtown Santa Monica caught the man in the act.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department spotted a suspicious man in the area of Broadway in Downtown Santa Monica at 12:20 pm on this day.
The officers noticed that this individual was attempting to cut a bicycle cable lock that was securing a bicycle to a metal pole.
The officers turned on their powerful spotlight and illuminated the individual.
The officers could then see that this suspect was holding a pair of wire cutters in his right hand.
The officers then ordered the man to step away from the bicycle.
The officers spoke with this man who told them that he had been dining at a nearby restaurant and had forgotten the combination to the lock on his bicycle.
The problem with this explanation was that the lock was of the kind that required a key, not a number.
The officers then asked this man if he had any receipts for the meal that he alleged he had just consumed, or any evidence of any other business he might have been conducting that evening.
Not surprisingly he did not.
This man then continued to add that he had purchased the bicycle new from a shop in Culver City two months prior.
The officers asked him the name of the shop to which he replied that he could not remember the store name, or its location.
He had also forgotten the brand of bicycle that he allegedly purchased.
The officers thus arrested this 51-year-old Los Angeles resident for attempted theft of the bicycle as well as possession of burglary tools.
Bail was set at $1,000.
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.
