Sheriff's blotter |
| Compiled by Rebecca Carroll
Pulled over for speeding on Calle Real, a couple in the car began arguing until the two had to be separated by deputies. As the male passenger, 43, was removed from the vehicle, a glass pipe was discovered on his seat. “That’s not mine,” he continued to argue. “I’m being set up.” Noting that the man’s eyes didn’t react to light, a deputy asked him if he’d taken any drugs. After testing positive for methamphetamines, the man was arrested for being under the influence of a controlled substance.
Following protocol for incoming mail, a deputy at the Inmate Receiving Center at the county jail noticed a suspicious smell after opening an envelope addressed to a female inmate. The familiar odor of heroin, which has a distinctive vinegar scent, and the darkened seams of the enclosed greeting card required a closer look. Upon closer examination, the deputy discovered a dark substance similar to that of heroin tucked between the seams of the card. The substance has been booked as evidence.
Fortune shone on a prowler earlier this month when the home he chose to burglarize was, literally, in the dark. A lapsed electrical bill made the burglary all the easier for the unknown suspect. During the blackout, the burglar entered the Isla Vista apartment through an unlocked door and left with electronic gaming equipment, including an xBox, and a cellular phone.
A search for two missing teenaged girls ended when they were caught shoplifting from a Turnpike Road grocery store on a recent morning. Store security, however, was watching as they filled a backpack with shaving razors, a pizza, a beverage and cold medicine. Without paying for the merchandise, the girls then left the store. Upon their exit, the girls were apprehended. After their arrest for petty theft, the girls, ages 15 and 17, were released to their respective guardians.
A pricey oil painting, valued between $25,000 and $30,000, has been stolen from an East Camino Cielo residence. The victim told investigators the burglar entered the home over a recent weekend. The 5-foot-long painting, depicting a well-known Santa Barbara locale, had been resting on a fireplace mantle before its disappearance. The burglar is wanted for grand theft.
Numerous pieces of jewelry and more than $3,000 in cash stolen from an Alameda Avenue home remain missing after the homeowner returned home on a recent afternoon to find his place ransacked. Evidence, like the two muddy footprints discovered in the bathtub, indicate the burglar entered the home through an unlocked bathroom window while the victim was at work.
For the third time in a year, a thief has made off with thousands of dollars worth of copper wire from outside a Bollay Avenue defense contracting business. Once cut, the copper wire could have been sold for money to a recycler. A security director contacted authorities earlier this month about the theft.
Deputies responding to a call of “people arguing” met with the unhappy couple in question. When deputies arrived on the scene, not only did they find the couple, they also found a well-tended marijuana plant growing in plain view in the front yard. The plant, standing a foot tall, appeared to have been watered. The green thumb was arrested for cultivating marijuana.
A man, 35, who kept a stash of two syringes, 15 morphine pills, and a rock of heroin in his sock — “just in case he was arrested” — was, indeed, arrested earlier this month. Believing the drugs would get him the money he would need in jail, he explained why he hid the contraband in his sock. Strip-searched when he entered jail, the man was asked by deputies if they would find anything on his person. “Yeah,” he answered, “I have a couple of rigs in my sock.” Aside from a “unique Jack Daniel’s vase,” as described by the victim, a burglar also stole a laptop computer and $2,500 in cash from a fraternity house. It was during a party of 40 to 50 guests that the items were stolen.
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