A Santa Monica personal trainer was recently arrested after surveillance footage captured him stealing jewelry valued at more than $24,000 from one of his clients.
On Thursday, Aug. 14, at 9:30 pm officers of the Santa Monica Police Department who were on routine patrol were alerted to a report of a burglary at an apartment in the 200 block of Washington Avenue.
The officers went to the location and interviewed the victim.
The victim told the officers she had been staying in the apartment as a favor to her friend who was in the hospital undergoing an unspecified medical procedure.
She added that she had left the apartment door unlocked at the behest of the hospitalized friend, who had been expecting a package.
Upon her return to the apartment she had discovered that a bag containing her jewelry (valued at more than $24,000) was missing from the apartment.
She told the officers that nothing else had been taken and she said that she suspected that her friend’s personal trainer (who had been living at the apartment) might have been the thief.
The officers then contacted the manager of the apartment who was able to check the surveillance video.
This video showed that the personal trainer had entered the apartment at the time when the jewelry had been taken.
The officers then canvassed local pawnshops and discovered that this man had pawned the victim’s jewelry.
The investigators assigned to the case called the suspect and he later turned himself in to the police.
This 38-year-old Santa Monica resident was arrested and charged with burglary. Bail was set at $50,000.
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.
