A suspicious acting Palmdale man was arrested in Santa Monica on Wednesday, July 18 after being caught with burglary tools and lying about his identity.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department who were assigned to a special unit tasked with undercover operations designed to apprehend auto burglars in the parking structures around Third Street Promenade noticed a suspicious person at 2:30 pm on this day who was using a flashlight in order to peer into car windows.
The officers then watched as this man got into a black sedan and exited the structure. Uniformed officers who were on alert and ready to pounce pulled the black sedan over a few moments later.
The officers spoke with the man and asked him for his drivers’ license.
The man said that he didn’t have it with him but gave the officers a name that he claimed was his own name.
The officers asked this man if they could search his vehicle and he agreed.
The officers conducted said search and found that this man possessed numerous burglary tools and evidence of other vehicle burglaries.
This man was arrested and taken to jail where he confessed that the name that he had originally given to the officers was in fact the name of his deceased brother, Gary.
The man then confessed his real identity and was charged with possession of stolen property, false impersonation of another, possession of burglary tools, probation revocation and outstanding warrants.
Bail for this living 44-year-old Palmdale resident was set in the sum of $22,736.
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.