2 Arrested for Stealing Liquor from Stores Across North Bay

NORTH BAY, CA -- A pair of Sacramento residents have been arrested in Sonoma County for allegedly stealing an estimated $6,000 worth of liquor from stores across the North Bay.

The case began when at about 6:30 pm on Sunday, Jan. 29, when deputies from the Sonoma Police Department were dispatched to a Safeway store in Sonoma regarding a theft. Reporting the theft were loss prevention officers from a Safeway store in Marin County who had followed two suspected thieves to Sonoma.

The loss prevention officers said that while in Sonoma, they observed a male suspect enter the Safeway store with a dark backpack, a the female suspect remained in the driver’s seat of a car. Inside the store, they say they saw the male suspect place several bottles of alcohol inside the backpack, exit the store without paying for the items, get back into the awaiting car, and drive away. The loss prevention officers called dispatch and followed the suspects while updating dispatch with the suspect vehicle’s location.

Sonoma Police deputies located and later stopped the suspect vehicle on Napa Road on the east side of town. Upon contact, the deputy could see the backpack on the passenger side floorboard and the suspects confirmed they were coming from Safeway. The deputy could smell a strong odor of alcohol from inside the vehicle and discovered one of the stolen bottles had broken inside the backpack and leaked all of the car and the suspect’s pants.

The deputy searched the backpack and located 15 bottles of alcohol along with drug paraphernalia.

Inside the trunk, the deputies located 70 bottles of high-end alcohol, many still with the electronic sensors on them. According to the loss prevention officers, many bottles were stolen from other Safeway stores in the North Bay; Windsor, Petaluma, and Novato. Fifty-seven of the bottles could not be linked to a specific Safeway.

The items stolen from the Sonoma Safeway totaled over $1,300. The total value of all the stolen liquor was estimated at $6,000.

The male suspect was identified as Matthew Robert Moore, 28, of Sacramento. He was booked into the Sonoma County jail for violation of probation, burglary, possession of stolen property, and conspiracy to commit a crime.

The female suspect was identified as Frankie D. Nicholls, 24, also from Sacramento. She was booked into the Sonoma County jail for burglary, possession of stolen property and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Image via Sonoma County Sheriff