Santa Barbara – One would think that while driving through the streets of an unfamiliar city in the pre-dawn hours well after midnight, you’d be wise enough to make sure that the guy behind the wheel had in his possession a valid Driver’s License. That’s what one would think, but based upon the events taking place at 5:30 a.m. on September 1st upon the streets of Santa Barbara, one would be wrong.
It was at that time that a 911 Emergency call to the Santa Barbara Police Department’s dispatch center reporting a traffic collision on a downtown street brought SBPD patrol officers to the scene, where they discovered a car that had failed to make a proper turn and had crashed into a parked car. Behind the wheel was Regino Omar Estrada Ramirez, a 25-year-old from Los Angeles who was not a licensed driver.
According to SBPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, the officers at the scene, acting in accord to state law, informed Ramirez that his car was being impounded. With a tow truck standing at the ready, “officers conducted an inventory search” which revealed evidence of criminal activity, including stolen checks, a can of recently-used spray paint, and “a check fishing device” used to purloin mail from United States Postal Service mail depository boxes.
Realizing that Ramirez and his companions Ramon Julian Gomez, 19, and Saulo Solares, 20, also residents of Los Angeles, may have been involved in mail theft, the officers then commenced a more thorough search of the vehicle and of the three young men who were by then detained.
That subsequent search revealed the presence of a second “check fishing device”, a small amount of methamphetamine, stolen checks valued in excess of $28,000, and a pair of binoculars. The immediately ensuing investigation indicated that the trio, in the area to visit Ramirez’s mother, had spent the night committing a range of vandalism, spray painting graffiti, and stealing checks from area USPS mail boxes.
All three were arrested at the scene and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where they were booked on charges of criminal conspiracy, check forgery, grand theft, vandalism, possession of methamphetamine, and participation in a criminal street gang, with their bail set at $120,000 each.
Photos: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
