Alert loss prevention agents at Bloomingdale’s Department store in Santa Monica helped in the arrest of a clothes thief on Thursday, Aug. 28. Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department responded to a report of theft at the store located at 315 Colorado Avenue at 12:15 pm on this day.
Upon arrival at the store the officers spoke with the loss prevention agents at Bloomingdale’s who told them that the suspect had entered the store and that via the facilities afforded to them by video surveillance cameras they had seen the suspect select numerous items of clothing from the display racks and take them into a fitting room.
The suspect had then exited the fitting room shortly afterwards but without any sign of the items of clothing.
The loss prevention agents then rushed to the fitting room but could not find any of the clothes in the fitting room either.
The suspect then exited the store and the loss prevention agents followed the suspect and apprehended him outside the store in order to uncover the mystery of the vanishing clothes.
The loss prevention agents discovered several items of clothing secreted upon the suspect and they escorted him back into the store to await the arrival of the police.
The suspect also possessed wire cutters that he had used in order to remove the security tags of the clothing so that the alarms at the exits would not be triggered.
Upon being questioned by the officers this 25-year-old resident of Rocklyn, California admitted that he had taken the clothing and had no intention or means of paying for said items.
The man was arrested and charged with commercial burglary as well as outstanding warrants. Bail was not granted.
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.
