MAIN STREET — How heavy is a 50-inch plasma television?
Apparently not heavy enough to deter a man from breaking into a restaurant on Main Street and carrying the television to a nearby rooftop.
That’s where police said they found Cori Hoffman, 33, and the flat-screen early Tuesday morning after a roughly one-hour search that involved an LAPD helicopter.
Hoffman, a Los Angeles resident, was arrested around 2:30 a.m. by Santa Monica police officers in the 2800 block of Main Street. He was booked for commercial burglary. His bail was set at $20,000.
Police responded to a call of a burglary alarm going off at the Areal restaurant around 1:15 a.m. Officers spotted Hoffman on a nearby roof and police set up a perimeter and asked for assistance from an LAPD helicopter.
The suspect was spotted from the air with the television in his possession, police said. Hoffman was taken into custody without incident and the TV was recovered.
Betsy Mighell, manager at Areal, lives near the restaurant and heard the helicopter hovering overhead. She said the restaurant opened as usual Tuesday and that “everything [was] back to normal.”
For the record: Several web sites had a 50-inch plasma weighing in at 60 pounds.
kevinh@www.smdp.com
