High-Tech Cop Work Catches Craigslist Computer Crook
The Fielding Graduate Institute, nestled just off the most scenic part of U.S. 101 between the Santa Barbara Polo Club and the tiny beachfront community of Summerland, is known throughout the world as a peaceful enclave of higher learning. It’s such a successful program of graduate studies that its internationally-acclaimed conferences are of such size that they’re frequently conducted at the Doubletree Resort just steps from the sands of Santa Barbara’s East Beach.
Ari Benjamin Morguelan
After the events of January 15th, however, both Fielding and the Doubletree may be known as the perfect venues for thieves to ply their trade. It was on that afternoon that a Fielding Institute conference attendee called Santa Barbara Police to report the theft of a laptop computer which she claimed had been stolen when left in the conference area while she had lunch in the hotel dining area.
According to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, responding officers quickly accessed hotel security video recordings, which revealed a male suspect entering the conference room while it was vacant and then “exiting with the computer in full view.” When SBPD Officer Doug Klug shared that video with a Fielding Institute staff member, the suspect was promptly identified as Ari Benjamin Morguelan, 33, a staff member of the Institute working at the conference.
Klug conducted a records check and determined “that Morguelan is a felony probationer with unrestricted search terms stemming from a theft conviction,” Harwood reported. Klug then contacted Morguelan, conducted a personal and vehicle search as per his probation terms, but found no evidence of the stolen laptop. When Klug accessed photo images on Morguelan’s smartphone, however, he discovered photos of the stolen laptop which were linked to a Craigslist posting on the cellphone’s browser and offered the laptop for sale at a bargain price of $900.
Pursuant to these field observations, a probation search was conducted shortly thereafter of Morguelan’s residence, where the purloined laptop itself was discovered.
Morguelan was arrested on charges of grand theft and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail with bail set at $20,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
Noozhawk: Stolen Laptop Leads to Grand Theft Charge for Probationer
EdHat: Grand Theft Arrest
Nixle: Grand Theft Arrest
