On June 5 at approximately 3:30 p.m., afemale victim and her friends were spending some time on the beach and placed their belongings under Tower 10.
The group walked away from the tower briefly, but when they returned they discovered all their property had been thrown around.
While gathering her belongings, the victim noticed her cellphone was among the missing items. The victim saw the suspect, later identified as Deshsheen Lewis, 40, walking on the beach a short distance away from her and noticed he was eating from a bag of chips that was also missing from her bag.
As the victim began to follow the suspect, she heard her cellphone ringtone sounding from his location. The victim then saw that the suspect was carrying her phone, so she flagged down a beach maintenance worker and asked him to call the police.
The victim watched the suspect as he entered a public restroom at the 1100 block of the beach, then waited for police to arrive. The suspect walked away, however, so a witness followed him as he headed toward the downtown area. Officers detained the suspect a short while later.
The suspect admitted to taking the phone but said he broke it after it started ringing and flushed it down the restroom toilet. The suspect was then taken into custody and booked for petty theft at Santa Monica Jail. Bail was set at $1,000.
