Suspected Berkeley Catalytic Converter Thief gets Picked up in Pinole
Photo: confiscated in this incident
BERKELEY —Working in collaboration with the Pinole Police Department, Berkeley officers arrested a suspected catalytic converter thief. The suspect was apparently recorded by a video surveillance camera while the theft was in progress.
Shortly before midnight on October 11, Pinole officers detained a resident of Richmond. Berkeley PD was notified that this man was a suspect in a September 3 catalytic converter theft in Berkeley.
This catalytic converter theft occurred at 3:50 a.m., near Hillcrest Avenue. The exhaust system equipment was taken from a parked Toyota Prius, about 11 miles away from where the suspect was arrested.
The suspect is 19-year-old Marco A. Dinegro. Pinole police detained him at a Shell gas station, located at 1401 Fitzgerald Drive in Pinole. He was handed over to Berkeley police officers who traveled to Pinole to take him into custody.
Dinegero was arrested October 12 at approximately 1 a.m. He was transported and booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin at 5:35 a.m.
An assault weapon was located inside a vehicle associated with Dinegro, along with a large capacity magazine. This weapon is homemade, a so-called ghost gun.
Dinegro was arrested on suspicion of grand theft and conspiracy to commit a crime. He was also booked for possession of an assault weapon, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle and possession of ammunition.
On October 13, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office filed two charges against Dinegro. At this point, he has been charged with grand theft of personal property, and vandalism causing more than $400 in damage.
