Great patrol work by Officer Ben Whaley results in the
arrest of a bike theft suspect and 2 of the suspect’s cohorts.
While most of us are asleep comfortably in our homes,
there is a whole crew of dedicated SCPD Officers working to keep the city safe
and respond to your needs. Officer Ben
Whaley is one of those dedicated officers.
Officer Whaley was called to take a bike theft report at
1:30 AM in the 900 block of Cayuga Street.
The victim was awakened by the sound of someone going through her
backyard. She caught a glimpse of the
suspect taking her bicycle from the backyard and riding away.
While Officer Whaley took the report, other officers
circulated the area to no avail. After
completing the report, Officer Whaley kept an eagle eye for any suspicious
looking characters out in the early morning hours.
At about 2:20 AM, Officer Whaley spotted our suspect
along with two of his drug-using cohorts in the Chevron lot at Ocean and Soquel. They were at the Chevron putting air in the
tire of the bicycle they had stolen just an hour before.
Officer Whaley (and a few of his friends in blue) stopped our
suspects in the Chevron lot. Our suspect
makes up a story about owning the bicycle and buying it a week and a half
ago. The bicycle had some distinctive features,
so we knew his story was rated a solid “4 Pinocchio’s” on the liar scale.
We called the victim and she shows up to positively ID
her bicycle and provide pictures for proof.
Thanks to Officer Whaley, she gets her bike back which was otherwise
doomed to a “rattle can” flat-black spray paint job.
Turns out our suspect is (drumroll please)…….on
Probation. He has a long, long history
of arrests with our department alone.
This makes his 4th arrest this year. He is identified as
Gabriel (Gabe) Langan – 24 years old – Transient
Mr. Langan was arrested for Possession of Stolen
Property, Theft, and Violation of Probation.
Now for his two friends.
Mr. Donovan Dehart was in the company of Mr. Langan.
Turns out he had a warrant for his arrest out
of Campbell, CA for drug charges. Not
only that, but he was in possession of drug paraphernalia and heroin. Mr. Dehart was promptly taken into custody
and booked in jail.
Mr. Caleb McGuire was also contacted with our
suspects.
Mr. McGuire is also on
Probation. He too, has a history of
multiple arrests and this occasion memorialized his 4th arrest by
SCPD this year. Mr. McGuire was found in
possession of drug paraphernalia. He too
was arrested.
Great work by Officer Whaley and our brave victim.
