Hospitality
Wednesday, November 28 at 12:30 a.m. – 1700 block of Ocean Avenue – A woman went to the restaurant at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and ordered $20 worth of food, saying that she was staying at the hotel. After her meal, she was unable to supply a room number and attempted to walk out. She was detained by hotel security, who called the police. She told responding officers that she had seen no prices on the menu and so she thought the food was free, just before they arrested her for defrauding an innkeeper.
Road Rage
Thursday, November 29 at 8:10 a.m. – Ocean and California Avenues – A woman driving on Ocean Avenue stopped for the signal at California. The man in the car behind her began honking and yelling at her. He got out of his car and approached her window, yelling that he was going to kill her. When the light changed, he got back in his car, pulled up alongside her, pointed a handgun at her, yelled again that he was going to kill her, and then drove away. She got a good look and the man . . . and his license plate. Follow-up investigation by the police led to his arrest at his Pacific Palisades residence for assault with a deadly weapon.
More ADW
Tuesday, November 27 at 12:30 a.m. – Ocean Avenue and Bay Street – Two homeless gentlemen got into an argument which led one of them (Suspect) to hit the other (Victim) over the head with a beer bottle from which Suspect had been drinking. The argument continued until Victim walked to the 1550 beach parking lot just north of the Pier and bedded down for the night. A few minutes later, Suspect appeared and began kicking and punching Victim on the ground. Witnesses called the police. Suspect fled. Responding officers detained Suspect in the parking lot, and he was identified by Victim and witnesses in a field show-up. He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.
Darwin Awards
About this time every year, the “Darwin Awards” begin circulating on the Internet – unattributed stories about the “least evolved” examples of the human species. Although the following did not occur in Santa Monica, it does have the flavor of a story told in APB: “As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID [a ‘field show-up,’ as we call it in these pages]. To which he replied, ‘Yes, officer, that’s her. That’s the lady I stole the purse from.’ “
