Nature of Incident: Public’s help leads to the arrest of suspect who stole elderly disabled female’s wallet
Report Number: 15-13076
Location: Thousand Oaks / Oxnard
Date & Time: 6/24/15 1430
Unit Responsible: Thousand Oaks Police Investigations
(S)uspects, City of Residence Age
Steve Michael Stevens Transient – Ventura County 30
Narrative:
On June, 22, 2015, video surveillance was released to the public showing a male subject with his family stealing a disabled elderly lady’s wallet. The crime took place at a gas station after the male subject distracted the elderly female and took the wallet out of her purse. The crime was captured on video surveillance.
As a result of the release of the video surveillance, Thousand Oaks Investigators received over 25 phone calls from callers identifying the same male in the video as having stolen or attempted to steal from them. The callers were from both Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and the crimes occurred over the past 8 months.
Some callers had very detailed information about the suspect who was identified as Steve Michael Stevens (age 30). This information helped lead to the whereabouts of Stevens and he was subsequently arrested on June, 24, 2015, at about 2:30 pm in the city of Oxnard.
Stevens’ alleged scam involved telling victims he would do body work on their cars to fix minor damage or scratches. Stevens would then appear to do work on the damage and then cover it with a wax type substance. The victims were then told to wipe it off in 24 hours and the damage would be fixed The victims would pay Stevens and would later learn the damage was not fixed and was oftentimes worse.
Stevens seemed to target females and elderly individuals. Stevens was also involved in other scams that involved arrangements to fix damage and ask for money up front. He would say he was leaving to get replacement parts or supplies and not return. Some victims lost over $1000.00 in the theft scams.
Stevens was booked into Ventura County Jail for Grand Theft and Financial Elder abuse charges. His bail was set at $55,000.
Prepared by: Sergeant Jason Robarts #2948
Media Release Date: 6/26/15
Media Follow-Up Contact: Sergeant Jason Robarts #2948 (805) 947-8108
Approved by: Ross Bonfiglio, Captain
