A Santa Monica man was arrested on Friday, Nov. 13, after being caught trying to steal a bicycle.
At 3:51 pm a Traffic Services Officer from the Santa Monica Police Department who was working in Parking Lot Number Five South, located at 2600 Barnard Way observed an individual that appeared to be acting suspiciously as he loitered in the area of a bicycle rack.
The Traffic Services Officer approached the suspect and as he arrived closer he noticed that the suspect was attempting to sever a bicycle lock with a pair of yellow bolt cutters.
The suspect then apparently realized that the Traffic Services Officer was watching his activities and at that moment stepped away from the bicycle and threw the bolt cutters into rear of a silver Chrysler Town Car, got into the driver’s seat and drove away.
The Traffic Services Officer alerted officers of the Santa Monica Police Department about what had happened and furnished said officers with the license plate number of the Chrysler Town Car. Other officers located the suspect driving eastbound on Ocean Park Blvd. and initiated a traffic stop. The officers approached the vehicle but before they could say anything the suspect spontaneously told them that he had not been attempting to steal any bicycles and that he had in fact been doing a community service by removing what he termed a “deadlock” from the bicycle rack. Shortly afterwards the Traffic Services Officer arrived and positively identified the man as being the same individual who had been attempting to cut the bicycle lock. An assisting officer went to the scene of the crime, and contrary to the suspect’s claims, the mangled lock on the bicycle rack had been securing a red mountain bike and was not a “deadlock” as the suspect had argued. This 40-year-old man was arrested and charged with attempted theft. 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.
