A 67-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested on Wednesday, Dec. 31, after stealing a City of Santa Monica pressure washing truck and crashing it into a black Audi on Montana Avenue while trying to flee authorities.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were alerted to a vehicle theft at 10:15 am that had just occurred in the area of Ocean Avenue and Washington Avenue.
The stolen vehicle was a City of Santa Monica pressure washing truck and had been reported as last being seen speeding northbound on Ocean Avenue with a male suspect at the wheel.
Within seconds the officers spotted this hard to miss vehicle and noticed that it was by then weaving in and out of the bicycle lane and coming perilously close to parked vehicles.
The vehicle then turned onto Montana Avenue whereupon the officers, fearing the driver might strike a pedestrian or cyclist, turned on their lights and sirens for a high-risk traffic stop.
The vehicle came to a stop in the 400 block of Montana Avenue and the suspect arrested.
The officers later determined that the vehicle had in fact struck a black Audi that had been parked in the 300 block of Montana Avenue.
This man was charged with vehicle theft, misdemeanor hit and run, and driving without a license. Bail was set at $25,000.
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.
