A 64-year-old homeless man was arrested on Wednesday, Sept. 3 after breaking into the Santa Monica U-Haul premises using a mop bucket.

Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department responded to U-Haul at 1747 Lincoln Boulevard at 10:08 pm in response to a burglary report.

An employee of the alarm company that had been contracted to protect the premises had observed, via closed-circuit television feed, a man break a window and enter the business and then walk away with various items that he had taken from the location.

When the officers arrived they saw that the doors had been broken, possibly by use of a mop bucket.

The officers went in search of the suspect and found and detained a man who fit the description in the area of 1843 Lincoln Boulevard.

The officers recovered various items that the man possessed that the officers suspected as being the property of U-Haul.

This man was arrested and charged with burglary, and bail was set at $20,000.

Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.