What are the most common types of crimes committed around the Morongo Basin? That’s the question posed to Douglas Poston, Supervising Deputy District Attorney for the Desert Division Morongo Basin Office, on a recent episode of the Z107.7 Up Close Show. Host Gary Daigneault spoke with Poston about the types of crimes most commonly prosecuted in our community, and shared one unusual incident from the last few weeks.
Douglas Poston: “In many cases, we see theft and domestic violence and narcotics as the three main categories. And theft can be anything from residential burglary to… we had a gentleman steal a large television from Walmart the other day.
And so, and that one was kind of a quirky case.
This gentleman apparently found a large TV box and took some hefty bags, filled them with water, put those inside the TV box, wheeled that TV box into Walmart up here, put that on the shelf with the essentially water jugs in it, and then grabbed the TV and put that in his shopping cart and wheeled his way right out of Walmart. Very creative. Not well thought out, but pretty creative because Walmart has great surveillance.
Walmart, thankfully, is getting on board with the changes in Prop 36. So that case then became a petty theft with prior petty thefts. That person wasn’t even from this area, it was from I think down by Palm Desert or DHS. That person had a prior strike conviction, and then I think half a dozen or more prior theft convictions. So that was an example of one of those people that we now filed under a new Prop 36 crime.”
Previously reported:
Deputy District Attorney Douglas Poston explains Proposition 36 – Z107.7 FM Joshua Tree
