Gone Without a Trace
A six-carat diamond ring, with a jeweler’s appraisal of $345,000, is missing from the home of a Santa Barbara resident. The owner of the ring, who employs multiple people to work at her home, said she routinely left her ring unattended in a small dish in her kitchen. However, on Dec. 21, upon collecting her ring, she was alarmed to discover it missing.
While there is no particular suspect, the owner of the missing ring said she’d recently left a prospective employee alone in the kitchen area to complete a questionnaire.
After the interview was over, the ring was missing.
In Search of His Short-Term Memory
Suspected of driving under the influence of marijuana, during sobriety test, the 23-year-old male began counting as instructed, but eventually lost track.
“I lost count at 14,” the young man said.
Initially pulled over in Carpinteria for driving with a defective headlight on Saturday, deputies said they became suspicious after they found a small amount marijuana concealed in a black box – adorned with the image of Bob Marley – inside the console.
Confessing to smoking pot and drinking a couple of beers, unable to pass the sobriety test the Santa Cruz resident was arrested and transported to jail.
Tied to the Scene
A purse containing $3,000 in cash stolen from an elderly woman who’d inadvertently left her bag unattended in an unlocked car on Trieste Lane remains long gone.
The Dec. 30 burglary may have occurred around noon when, the victim told authorities, a “hobo-looking man” knocked on her door.
Deputies are searching for the “scraggly” suspect believed to be involved. The victim, 89, recalls the man appeared “thrown together” and had not properly tied his neckerchief.
Time for Sleep
Engaged in an animated conversation with the headrest, deputies found a man, who’d been disturbing employees inside a grocery store, now in his a car outside the Casitas Pass Road location.
Asking the 56-year-old man to whom he was talking, the deputies heard the man reply, “Two drama teachers.” Adding, he’d befriended the girls after they invaded his home earlier that morning.
Confirming there were no other people in the car, deputies asked the man to exit his vehicle at 7 a.m. locating a Baggie of white powder and a razor blade in his front seat.
Claiming he’d found the Baggie on a box of pancake mix inside the store, and that his “car is always full of razor blades,” the man was detained by the deputies. When the substance tested presumptive positive for cocaine, the man was arrested on suspicion of possession of the controlled narcotic.
Cache of Coins
More than $3,000 in quarters is missing from a garage on Ortega Ridge Road in Summerland.
The victim, the owner of an apartment complex and laundry facility, said he collects and stores the quarters, eventually taking them to the bank.
However, sometime between Dec. 21 and Sunday, his cache of coins went missing.
The man told deputies the stash of quarters, weighing more than 200 pounds, would take a significant effort to move.
Boozing on a Cold and Blustery Morning
Early Saturday, deputies went to Ogan Road, found the scantily clad female lying in the roadway.
Wearing a “small shirt and thin pants,” the disoriented and shoeless female said she drank drinking five Long Island Iced Tea cocktails before falling down in the street. Before getting lost on Saturday morning, the woman told deputies she had hoped to “walk to the park in her pj’s.”
The woman was charged with suspicion of public intoxication.
Real Estate Agent Leaves Valuables Unattended
A real estate agent contacted authorities, after leaving her car unlocked overnight in her driveway on Friday, she returned to find her vehicle ransacked.
According to the report, missing from the car was a briefcase containing $1,000 in cash and keys to various properties.
Choose Your Drinking Buddy More Carefully
A man, 36, beaten with a rock by a drinking buddy, upon leaving the hospital said he did not wish to press charges against his assailant.
The victim said, “I just want to go home.”
During an interview with the injured man, he told deputies he’d been drinking “under a bridge” in Carpinteria when his new acquaintance turned against him.
Before being hit, he recalled the suspect saying, “I don’t like you. I’m going to kill you.”
Prized Painting of Ballerina
A painting, an image of a ballerina, will be held in the evidence locker at the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department awaiting its owner’s release.
The art enthusiast, 40, had his prized painting with him during his arrest for violating his parole terms on Wednesday. Prior to being booked, the man requested the painting be held for safekeeping.
Rise and Moonshine
Annoyed by an intoxicated man in her neighborhood, a woman contacted authorities Saturday to have her friend’s boyfriend arrested.
When deputies arrived on the scene, they found the man staggering on the sidewalk near Ninth Street and Holly Avenue in Carpinteria.
The man, 37, who initially attempted to walk away, told the deputies he’d been drinking beer and wine all morning.