Santa Cruz Man Arrested 11 Times Since January 2015

SANTA CRUZ - 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:

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.

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.

-Bay City News, images, embeds via Santa Cruz Police Department