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It was 10 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25, when four female juveniles walked into Safeway, went straight to the liquor aisle, took a bottle of tequila, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of cranberry juice and a box of cookies.

Spending no more than three minutes in the store, they marched right out again, bypassing the check-out line, and retreated to a nearby field, presumably to enjoy the fruits of their illicit labor. But store personnel had spotted the theft and alerted police who arrived in time to confront the quartet, whereupon one of them ran off. That, as the reporting officer later wrote, "left three," aged 16 (from Glen Ellen), 17 and 17 (from Sonoma). One of the 17-year-olds was in possession of a glass marijuana pipe as well, and all three laughed and talked among themselves, apparently finding humor in their predicament.

Not so funny were the charges against them, including burglary, possession of stolen property and conspiracy to commit a crime. One of the 17-year-olds was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. The trio was booked into Juvenile Hall. Safeway staff may have been on the alert because of an earlier encounter with tippling teens who made a similar illegal acquisition the night before. At 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, police were called to investigate some teens hanging out in the same field with what store personnel believed might be some alcohol stolen from Safeway. Police confronted a small group of juveniles in the field, one of whom confessed to stealing a bottle of Jaegermeister valued at $23, which he produced from a pocket in his sweatshirt.

The 17-year-old Sonoma youth was cited for shoplifting and released to the custody of his father.

In other incidents reported to Sonoma police: Sunday, June 22:

5:20 p.m. - Police contacted a homeless man in a small park on France Street near Fourth Street East who was, he said, watching TV on his laptop computer. The man, who was well-known to police, had a wireless Internet connection on his computer, which was powered by a large car battery located in the Longs drugstore shopping cart he was using to transport his possessions. Police did not press the issue of an unauthorized wifi connection but did object to an unauthorized shopping cart possession. They therefore cited him for appropriating lost property, confiscated the cart and a milk crate, and told the Internet surfer to surf elsewhere. The cart and crate were returned to Longs.

Wednesday, June 25:

9:16 a.m. - The first of a string of six auto burglaries and vandalism attacks in southwest Sonoma was reported to police by a resident of the 200 block of Pickett Street who said thieves broke into a gold Toyota Siena van and his Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Taken were two 2-way radios, a total of 18 CDs and a cell-phone charger that was discarded in the front yard. The vehicles were parked in the owner's driveway and he said he may have forgotten to lock at least one of them.

Then at 9:45 a.m., police got a report from a resident in the 1000 block of Fryer Creek Drive that he left his white Honda CRV unlocked the night before and got up the next morning to discover that six CDs had been taken along with two pairs of binoculars. The CDs included classical, Brazilian and Portuguese  music.

That call was followed at 1 p.m. by a report that the roof of a silver Nissan 350Z convertible parked in the 1000 block of Fryer Creek Drive had been slashed three times and the interior was ransacked.

At 1:18 p.m. two residents of the 100 block of Cooper Street, close to the previous reports, told police both their vehicles had been ransacked, but thieves declined to take any of the second-hand store items stored in one of the cars.

Then at 2:15 p.m. another resident of the same block reported that a Verizon cell phone and a black iPod had been taken from a white Lexus left unlocked.

Two other burglary reports came in that afternoon that had not been processed at press-time, and then at 6:55 p.m. a resident of the 300 block of Arroyo Way told police that thieves had entered his dark blue Lincoln, apparently through an open sunroof, and stolen $300 worth of boxing equipment in a blue mesh bag, 50 CDs, his wallet with an ATM card and $40 in cash.

Police continue to investigate the crimes and ask that any citizens with information contact them at 996-3602.

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