Bail was not granted to a 22-year-old man from Venice on Wednesday, Oct. 9 after he was caught with an iPhone that he had stolen from inside a Santa Monica residence.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to a residence in the 2300 block of 25th Street at 5:50 am on this day after they had received a radio call about a possible burglary.
The victim had told dispatch that he had been awakened when he had heard a side garage door being opened.
The victim had stated that he had arisen from his bed and gone out to check, discovering the door was ajar.
The victim had then entered the garage and had seen the suspect inside holding the victim’s iPhone.
The suspect was using the iPhone in order to illuminate the garage.
The victim yelled some unreported dialogue at the suspect and the suspect responded, claiming that he (the suspect) was just a “bum” looking for some food.
A struggle ensued but the suspect managed to escape from the victim’s grasp.
The victim chased the suspect for a while but eventually the suspect got away, still with the victim’s iPhone in his hand.
The officers used a “find my phone” application (this is an application that enables a phone to be located via the use of a computer) and discovered that the phone was at an address in the 600 block of Westminster Avenue in Venice.
The officers continued their investigation in that area and were able to identify the alleged burglar.
That information was relayed to Santa Monica Police Department detectives and members of the Crime Impact Team.
Subsequently the suspect, a Venice resident was arrested and charged with receiving stolen property and a violation of probation.
The officers are currently investigating this suspect in regard to several other burglaries in the area.
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.
