Photo: Stock Image
For the past six weeks, the retail staff and management of jewelry stores in the city of Santa Barbara—many of which cater to a clientele considered by any metric to be “high net worth individuals” including popular film and television personalities and renowned industrialists and their spouses—have been walking on eggshells. The reason is simple fear of yet another armed robbery, three of which occurred during daylight hours in February and March.
According to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Ethan Ragsdale, the robberies involved a suspect wielding a firearm and acting in such haste that the total take in the three most recent events was “estimated at around $53,000.”
Once the suspect’s modus operandi became apparent, SBPD detectives went to work and ultimately identified 40-year-old Santa Barbara resident Omar Velazquez Sanchez as the perpetrator. As a relatively small population living in a fairly confined geographic area, Sanchez’s residence was identified and its surrounding area was staked out waiting for him to show up.
He did indeed show up on the evening of March 15th when SBPD detectives and SWAT officers converged on a busy Eastside neighborhood commercial intersection and took him into custody “without incident.”
The ensuing search of Sanchez’s person and residence led to the discovery of “multiple items of jewelry and a loaded firearm with a removed serial number” which detectives believe is the weapon used during the robberies. Sanchez was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on 16 felony charges, including felony burglary, grand theft, assault with a deadly weapon, making criminal threats, robbery, and a multiplicity of firearms and narcotics violations. He remains in custody with his bail set at $250,000.
