On Sunday, December 9, at 4:45 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were on foot patrol on the Third Street Promenade when they witnessed a pedestrian fail to adhere to a red light that informed him that he should not cross the street at Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Boulevard.
This man had run across the street as dozens of other law-abiding pedestrians had patiently waited at the light.
The officers stopped this man in the 1300 block of Third Street Promenade so that they could question him about the offense.
The officers requested that this man show them some identification but the man said that he didn’t have any.
He gave the officers a name and date of birth, both of which turned out to be false, which the officers discovered when they ran the information through their database.
What they did discover was a name with a similar spelling and it transpired that not only was this the real name of the red light offender, but that he had an outstanding warrant.
The officers searched this man and discovered a California Identification card that proved that he was in fact the man in the police computer.
This 56-year-old homeless man was arrested and charged with giving false identification to the police, crossing against a do not cross sign, a probation violation and the outstanding warrant.
Bail was set at $10,565.
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.