SAN DIEGO — We find ourselves at the 7-Eleven at 657 Palm Avenue just after 11:30 p.m., just in time to see a Hispanic male walk in and argue with several customers. He then took his grievances outside to a man whom he then headbutted, afterwards stealing his cigarettes and wristwatch. Off he went.
About an hour later, the clerk from a second 7-Eleven — this one at 1311 Palm Avenue — phoned the sheriff’s department to report someone had accosted a transient outside the store, then made off with two large cases of bottled water from the exterior display. After providing a description of the suspect and his vehicle license plate, officers quickly realized the suspect in question was the same man who’d visited the other 7-Eleven earlier.
A broadcast was sent out to law enforcement agencies and circulated around the South San Diego area in search of the suspect, and it wasn’t long before something bounced back. An SD police sergeant ran across a man sitting in the described vehicle in a closed park in the Coronado Avenue area, and a following curbside lineup allowed the initial victim to positively identify the man as the one who’d headbutted him and stolen his cigarettes and watch.
The suspect, who exhibited clear and numerous symptoms of being under the influence of a controlled substance, consented to a search of his vehicle — which turned up the stolen water from the 7-Eleven at 1311 Palm Avenue.
While his name has not been given at present, the suspect has been arrested for robbery, battery, burglary, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
