A 23-year-old man taken into custody nearly a dozen times since last year was arrested Monday in Santa Cruz for an alleged car break-in downtown, police said Friday.
Nathan Dickerson, a Santa Cruz resident, was arrested on suspicion of theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to police.
Dickerson has been arrested 11 times for various alleged crimes including theft, possession of stolen property, possession of drugs, car burglary and tampering with a vehicle throughout Santa Cruz County since January 2015, police said.
On March 24, Dickerson allegedly broke into a gold sedan parked on the second floor of a two-story parking lot at Cedar and Church streets, where he took a handgun legally stored in a lock box from the trunk, police said.
The three-minute theft occurred at daylight in public where many people were passing the area on foot or in their cars, according to police.
Police released a video taken of the incident that can be viewed online.
A photo of the suspect was taken from security video footage and distributed to other officers, who were advised to be on the lookout for him, police said.
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An officer saw the suspect in the 300 block of Ocean Street on March 26 and contacted him, but then left to respond to a higher priority call, according to police.
The officer relayed information from the encounter to a detective, who followed up on the case and found probable cause to arrest Dickerson, who was taken into custody without incident on Monday, police said.
Dickerson was arrested about a month ago for allegedly possessing a wallet and prescription pills from a car in the 100 block of West Cliff Drive, according to police.
Officers had to release the suspect after citing him for having stolen property under Proposition 47, police said.
