43-year-old David Christopher Murphy was arrested for two counts of petty theft under PC 666 (a) with three or more priors. On July 3, 2014 Murphy took a package from a front porch in Santa Clara. The victim was able to give police a copy of a surveillance video taken of the suspect when he came to the front door of the home, which clearly shows Murphy taking a package, which turned out to be of two air fresheners with an estimated value of $5.
It’s Murphy at the door…
Then again on July 6 Murphy struck again at the same home, taking another package from the front porch with an estimated value of $48. A “Be On the Lookout”, or BOL, was placed in the police processing system and forwarded to other agencies in order to try and capture Murphy before he struck again. However it wasn’t too long after the second report that a third report came reporting Murphy had struck again. He was seen on surveillance taking a package from the front porch of another resident in Santa Clara on July 7.
The reporting party also had video of Murphy taking several packages from their home, with an estimated value of around $200, over a period of a few days. Despite his brazen daytime thefts, it wasn’t until Aug 3 that a Santa Clara Police Officer located Murphy after a reports of a suspicious vehicle blocking the street near a driveway at a home, by someone that did not recognize Murphy as a resident in the area.
Santa Clara Police Officers arrived at the scene and identified David Murphy, who was still blocking the roadway as he stood just inside the door of his vehicle, which was parked near Winchester Blvd and Forest Avenue. After making contact with Murphy, they asked to a search him and his vehicle. Murphy complied by saying, “Yeah, I guess”. That is when SCPD officers found three glass pipes with an unknown substance similar to methamphetamine, and a baggie containing a white powder crystalline substance, that later tested positive for methamphetamine, in his front pocket.
Baby on board…Murphys 2-year-old was with him at least some of the time.
Murphy was arrested for drug possession and for being under the influence, while having his two-year old son on seated in the passenger front seat of the SUV, the same car seen in video surveillance photos taken during the theft of the victims’ packages.
Realizing that Murphy was wanted in Santa Clara for the theft charges, officers asked him about the incident. Murphy denied being involved in the theft and asked for a lawyer. He was booked and later released on a $20,000 bail, that was later been reduced to $10,000.
Murphy then failed to appear in court on Sept 10, 2014 in Dept 35 in front of the Honorable Hector E. Ramon, and thus forfeited his bail bond in the amount of $10,000. A warrant for his arrest on $50,000 bail has now been issued.
