Pablo Flores
Ventura County – Certain laptop computers are in such high demand on the black market, apparently, that when some thieves are identified stealing them, they have the temerity to surrender the evidence by trying to pass off an inferior product to arresting officers.
38-year-old Pablo Flores, who was arrested on July 6th, appears to be a case in point. It all started on the morning of July 4th at an Ojai restaurant when a backpack containing a high-end Apple MacBook Air was pilfered from the restaurant waiting area.
Once the owner realized the laptop was missing and the theft was reported to police, they accessed the restaurant’s video surveillance system and promptly publicized the image of the suspected thief.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Will Hollowell, that image went out to the public via social media “in an attempt to identify the suspect.”
It didn’t take long for “numerous members of the public,” including Ventura County Jail’s Classification Unit staffers to recognize Flores on the surveillance video.
With that identification made by multiple parties, Ojai Police Department detectives visited Flores at his home on the evening of July 6th, whereupon he confessed to the theft, but “attempted to return a different computer” to detectives.
That computer, it was quickly determined, had been stolen in a separate, earlier burglary in the City of Ventura. Further investigation and a search of Flores’ premises revealed the stolen MacBook Air, whereupon he was taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail and booked on a charge of grand theft and possession of stolen property.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Ojai Police
