An alert Santa Monica resident helped in the arrest of a burglar on Friday, June 19, after reporting suspicious behavior to authorities.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to the 1400 block of 14th Street at 1:15 am in order to investigate a report of a burglary.
Upon arrival the officers spoke with the primary witness who told the officers that she had been sitting in her carport when she had noticed a man ride a bicycle down the entrance ramp of the subterranean garage of the premises in question.
The witness said that this man then began to look at bicycles, storage units, and vehicles in the garage.
At first, the suspect said, she thought that this man might have been a resident of the building, but after observing his evidently suspicious behavior for a few minutes she became convinced that the man was not a resident but an individual whose motives could well be of the criminal variety.
This witness then added that the man continued to act in a dubious manner and had rummaged through a storage area in addition to attempting to open two car doors.
Armed with the description of the suspect that the witness had given these officers other assisting units located the suspect nearby and detained him.
These officers searched the suspect and discovered that he possessed drug paraphernalia in addition to a debit card that did not belong to him.
The officers arrested this 47-year-old Panorama City resident and he was charged with attempted burglary. 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.
