SAN RAFAEL – Two men were arrested on suspicion of falsely reporting crime, which they apparently hoped would distract the police, while they were committing real crime.
Police received a bogus 911 call 1:30 a.m. on January 27. A false report was made claiming that a violent incident was taking place on the west side of the city.
While officers were responding to the fake crime report, police received an alert that a burglar alarm had been activated at a business located, in the city’s east side Canal District neighborhood.
Officers at the bogus crime scene quickly realized it was a false crime report. Meanwhile, officers at the real crime scene determined that a cell phone and other items had been stolen from a business on Medway Road.
Officers reviewed the burglary incident as it was recorded by a surveillance camera, when the owner of the business arrived on the scene. The officers recognized the suspected burglars as repeat offenders.
Approximately four hours later at 5:30 a.m. officers located and arrested the two suspects near the intersection Bellam Boulevard and Andersen Drive.
San Rafael residents 30-year-old Eric A. Nylin, and 18-year-old Theodore P. Prater, were each booked at Marin County Jail on open charges for burglary; making a false report of an emergency, conspiring to commit a crime, and making a false report of a criminal offense.
Nylin has a lengthy rap sheet—25 arrests for battery, drugs, receiving stolen property, weapons, and other offenses. This was Prater’s fourth arrest. Bail for both men’s release has been set at $50,000, each.
