Thomas Brostromrich
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — Arriving just under the wire for 2016’s Creepiest Mugshot Award, the early evening arrest of 43-year-old Goleta resident Thomas Brostromrich on December 9th may also qualify him as a late-entry contender for Whackiest Criminal of the Year.
Supporting Brostromrich’s consideration for recognition are the facts supporting his arrest which began to accumulate when Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to what SBSD Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover described as “a report of a male subject in his underwear” who was behaving erratically and violently.
Upon arrival at a Goleta mobile home park, deputies met with the reporting party and were informed that Brostromrich “had entered a neighbor’s residence with two juvenile females inside,” whereupon he allegedly entered one of the girls’ bedrooms and was summarily “confronted by their grandfather.”
Grandpa did his best to get the intruder—who was wearing only his underwear—to leave, but Brostromrich “then assaulted the grandfather and continued to try to get access to the bedroom.” At that point, one of the girls screamed and Brostromrich allegedly threatened harm to the grandfather at the business end of a skateboard.
Witness reports at the scene indicated that Brostromrich then exited the mobile home, attempted to gain entry to a neighboring unit, and eventually retreated to his own residence nearby.
Curing their conversations with reporting parties and witnesses, deputies observed Brostromrich leaving his own residence, wherupon they attempted to make contact with him. Apparently wanting no part of uniforms, guns, and badges, Brostromrich resisted any contact and attempted to flee the scene, whereupon a physical confrontation ensued.
Brostromrich was eventually subdued, but not after deputies had received abrasions and Brostromrich earned a cut on his nose that appears prominently in his endearing mugshot.
Further investigation revealed that Brostromrich had been stalking his 13-year-old neighbor “for several weeks… watching her on the playground.”
He was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked on a panoply of charges, including stalking, burglary, battery, brandishing a weapon other than a firearm, theft of a skateboard, resisting arrest, obstructing and delaying an officer, assault on a police officer, and resisting an executive officer through force, violence, or fear. His bail was set at $150,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
