Erik Sandoval said that he was only trying to help.

A woman had called Riverside police about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, to report that someone was trying to steal her boyfriend’s car in the 5800 block of Montgomery Street.

Officers arrived, they said, to find Sandoval holding a long copper wire with a hook on the end and reaching inside a closed window in an attempt to open the door.

Sandoval told police that they had it all wrong.

“The suspect stated the car looked stolen, so he was just going to drive it to the police station,” a news release said.

The cops for some reason didn’t buy his story. It might have had something to do with a records check that revealed that Sandoval was on one year of probation after a November conviction for grand theft auto and the shaved keys that police said they found on him.

Lt. Christian Dinco, who said he has arrested a number of auto-theft suspects, said Sandoval’s story ranks as one of the more unusual he has heard.

“It’s one of those statements that is so ridiculous, it’s actually hilarious,” Dinco said. “It looks stolen, so you try to re-steal it to drive it to the police station. Farfetched, but amusing.”

It has a ways to go, apparently, to match an excuse that police everywhere have heard, Dinco said. Apparently people found carrying drugs have evolved their “These aren’t my drugs” claim to “These aren’t my pants.”

“Who wears someone else’s pants?” Dinco said.

Sandoval, a 23-year-old Riverside resident, was arrested on suspicion of possession of burglary tools — which would be a violation of one of his terms of probation — as well as attempted grand theft auto and grand theft auto.

Bail was set at $60,000.

Sandoval was not sentenced to any jail time after his November conviction. He also has seven convictions for possession of a controlled substance, three convictions of possession of drug paraphernalia and two convictions for shoplifting. Sandoval faces a Feb. 1 hearing after a woman filed a request for a permanent restraining order related to domestic violence, Superior Court records show.