Kwiki Mart where arrest occurred
VENTURA — It wouldn’t take a great deal of online research or Wikipedia references to learn the basics of successful auto theft, but apparently Carolos Luna, a 47-year-old resident of Oak View, just east of the City of Ventura, has limited internet access.
That would be the reasonable supposition based upon the report made to the media by the Ventura Police Department Watch Commander describing Luna’s July 15th arrest in the Kwiki Mart parking lot on East Thompson Boulevard, in the heart of Ventura’s commercial district.
After having stolen a car, Luna didn’t even drive it out of the local area, preferring the hang out behind the wheel in a neighborhood parking lot.
It was fast approaching the midnight hour on the 15th when a VPD patrol officer conducting his routine rounds spotted “a suspicious vehicle” in the store’s parking lot.
Without describing in any detail what makes one vehicle appear “suspicious” more than any other, the Watch Commander indicated that the officer had some presumptive probable cause at the scene to conduct “a registration check” of the vehicle, whereupon he quickly discovered that the car had been stolen from a Ventura auto repair facility earlier that same day.
With that information at hand, the officer then made personal contact with Luna and informed him of the fact that he was behind the wheel of a stolen car.
At that point, Luna admitted that he had “visited the repair shop and inquired about purchasing the vehicle” some time prior to its being reported as stolen.
The officer, however, didn’t find much credibility in Luna’s story and placed him under arrest at the scene. He was then transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on charges of possession of a stolen vehicle and being in possession of a controlled substance.
Photo: Courtesy Google Maps
