A 64-year-old Los Angeles resident was arrested on Tuesday, July 22 after being caught stealing alcohol by plain clothes loss prevention agents inside a Santa Monica Rite-Aid store.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to investigate a report of theft at the Rite-Aid at 1331 Wilshire Boulevard at 4:25 pm on this day.
According to plain clothed loss prevention agents at the store, the suspect had taken a bottle of liquor from a shelf inside the store and had proceeded to conceal it under his sweatshirt.
The suspect had then left the store without paying for the bottle of liquor.
The loss prevention agents then told the police officers that they had apprehended this man on the sidewalk outside the store and had retrieved the bottle of liquor.
They added that the man had initially appeared to comply to a request to return to the store to wait for police, but broke away and ran from the location.
The officers located the suspect and arrested this L.A. man and charged him with theft and three outstanding warrants. Bail was set at $4,612.
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.
