Sunday, March 18
Burglary suspect
in no hurry
A 24-year-old transient had an ax, several stolen T-shirts, wads of cash in his pockets, blood stains on his clothes — and no alibi — at 1:45 a.m. when a Sonoma Police Officer questioned him about a break-in that had occurred an hour earlier at an ice cream parlor just off the plaza. The thief smashed the ice cream parlor’s window, hacked open the cash register with a sharp object, made off with several T-shirts and triggered the business’s alarm. Police found the suspect sitting on a plaza bench with an ax placed next to him. He was wearing a T-shirt from the ice cream parlor’s window display. Several similar T-shirts with price tags still attached were strewn about nearby. “He had a bunch of cash in his pants, $10s and $5s… and blood on his T-shirt,” said Sgt. Dave Thompson. The man confessed to the break-in, Thompson said, and was taken to the county jail in Santa Rosa.
Friday, March 16
Chopper, dogs
search for senior
Sgt. Dave Thompson called out the sheriff department’s bloodhounds and summoned Henry 1, the sheriff’s search helicopter, when an 85-year-old man wandered away on foot at 7:30 p.m. from a retirement center in the 400 block of W. MacArthur Street. Police searched the bike path near W. MacArthur and were assisted by citizens they met along the way. The search was called off when vacationers who were renting a Palmer Lane home called 911 after they saw the chopper and figured that it must be looking for the friendly, old gent who had appeared on their doorstep and joined them for a beverage and a chat.
Thursday, March 22
Smirnoff for breakfast
Sonoma Police arrested a 43-year-old transient from Santa Rosa on charges of being drunk in public after they were called to Murphy’s Irish Pub at 7:45 a.m. because the man had a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka in his hand and was pounding on the door of the pub, which was closed at that hour. The jail in Santa Rosa was still open. And that’s where police took the suspect, after pouring his vodka onto the ground.
Thursday, March 22
Durango disappears
Sometime overnight, someone stole a white 2002 Dodge Durango sport utility vehicle from a home in the 700 block of Second Street West. The SUV’s 22-year-old owner told police that she may have dropped her keys on the sidewalk. She surmised that a passerby found the keys, hopped into her SUV and drove off.
Tuesday, March 13
Goat cart gotten
Someone swiped a 200-year-old decorative goat cart sometime overnight from the Sonoma Court Shops at 27 E. Napa St. The thief or thieves unbolted the cart from the courtyard’s concrete walkway and carted it off. The missing cart is valued at $800. Also, a $200 terra cotta planter was broken during the theft.
