On Saturday, July 24, at 4:20 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were on patrol in the 200 block of Santa Monica Boulevard when they saw a suspicious looking man standing in front of a bicycle rack.
This man had a pair of black bolt cutters, and as the officers approached him they saw that he was using these bolt cutters to cut the lock from a bicycle and remove it.
A moment later the man noticed the presence of the officers and put the bolt cutters into his pocket.
The officers spoke with this man and he told them that he had lost the key to his bicycle and was cutting the lock of as a means of retrieving the bicycle.
The officers detained the man, looked at the cut cable, turned back to the man and informed him that the lock was a combination lock, and therefore did not require a key.
The officers arrested the man and then located the rightful owner of the bicycle inside a nearby business.
The bicycle, a $1,500 Trek Alpha Aluminum was photographed and then returned to the owner.
The man, aged 33, and a Los Angeles resident, was arrested and charged with grand theft property, possession of burglary tools, and a probation violation.
His bail was set at $20,000.
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.
