You can skateboard – but you cannot hide.
Local sheriff’s deputies who scrambled earlier this week to catch a gun-stealing skateboarder in Stevenson Ranch have arrested a Sylmar man on suspicion of grand theft firearm.
“This was another fine job by deputies who worked in the area and recognized the suspect from the surveillance footage at the business,” Lt. Igancio Somoano of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station told The Signal Thursday.
Darion Phillips, 18, of Sylmar, was arrested on suspicion of grand theft firearm shortly before 4 a.m. on Wednesday.
“Mr. Phillips is the suspect who was arrested for the gun theft,” Somoano said. “Deputies also located and recovered the stolen gun.”
The hunt for the gun-stealing skateboarder began shortly before 1:30 p.m. Tuesday when a skateboarder allegedly stole a gun from a Stevenson Ranch store and then wheeled out of sight.
The young man entered a store on 25200 block of The Old Road, grabbed a firearm kept there and fled, Sgt. Dan Dantice said on the day of the incident.
“He took a firearm and he fled the store, on a skateboard,” Dantice said. “He was last seen on The Old Road on a skateboard.”
The only description of the suspect given to deputies was that he was wearing jeans and blue shirt, Dantice said.
Detectives, however, scrutinized video surveillance footage of the incident and were able to identify the suspect, said Somoano, who oversees the sheriff station’s Detective Section.
No shots were fired when the theft occurred and no one was injured.
“The firearm was unloaded,” Dantice said Tuesday.
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