Police beat: Teenage girl arrested in Sonoma for prowling, theft

Early on Sunday morning, Feb. 17, management at the El Pueblo Inn on West Napa Street called Sonoma Police to check on a young woman they had seen peering into car windows in their parking lot. When officers arrived, they located a 17-year-old female in the parking lot, and when they asked her what she was doing there at about 3:30 a.m. she replied that she was lost – but her story did not match up with video surveillance from the motel parking lot camera.

Suspicions aroused, the officer checked her vehicle and located drug paraphernalia, burglary tools and a cache of checks addressed to a dentist office in Fairfield, the combined amount of which equaled a large sum of money, according to the officer. During the course of the investigation, it was determined the checks were stolen property from a vehicle with a broken window. The owner of the vehicle confirmed that the checks were stolen from the vehicle, saying he kept them in a particular location in his car and they were missing.

The juvenile also had a Level 2 controlled substance, a prescription with a stimulant ingredient, and an amount of what was suspected to be marijuana. She was arrested on charges of loitering or prowling, possession of a controlled substance, possession of stolen property and burglary from a vehicle. She was booked into juvenile hall.

Later that morning, at 9:15 a.m., a fire was reported under the El Verano bridge, at Riverside and Verano Avenue. Upon arrival deputies located a transient under the bridge next to a campfire. During the course of the investigation, the man admitted that he had a pipe in his pocket, and deputies recovered a glass pipe usually used for methamphetamine. Tobin Cartozian, 29, a Sonoma-based transient, was arrested and sent to county jail.