Santa Barbara man accused in ‘Grand Theft Auto’-style crime spree

Santa Barbara residents from various neighborhoods woke up Friday morning caught in the middle of one man’s alleged crime spree, evoking the video game series “Grand Theft Auto.”

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It all reportedly started around 5:30 a.m. when officers with the Santa Barbara Police Department responded to a report of a stolen vehicle on the 800 block of Cliff Drive, a few blocks up from popular Leadbetter Beach adjacent to the Santa Barbara Harbor.

About 15 minutes later, a Santa Barbara police officer “located the stolen vehicle in the first block of North Mills Street,” about 2 miles southeast of where the car was allegedly taken, police said.

That’s when things took a video game-style turn.

“The suspect driver accelerated toward the officer and attempted to use the vehicle to ram into him,” SBPD wrote in a statement recapping the incident Friday morning. “The officer was able to move out of the vehicle’s path, avoiding injury. The suspect vehicle then struck a parked vehicle before fleeing the area.”

The suspect, identified as a 25-year-old Santa Barbara resident, then took off on foot and continued his spree, police officials said. 

“A short time later, the suspect approached a victim who was seated in her vehicle near the intersection of Salinas Street and Gutierrez Street and attempted to unlawfully take possession of the vehicle,” the police statement said. “During the encounter, the suspect pointed a cellular phone at the victim in an attempt to make it appear as though he was armed with a firearm.”

The driver who had the phone pointed at them was able to “safely drive away and immediately contact the police,” the police statement said. 

Officers continued to search the area, receiving multiple calls that the man had first “forced entry into a residence in the 900 block of East Carrillo Street,” they said, then allegedly “attempted to force entry into a second residence in the 1000 block of East Canon Perdido Street.”

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Eventually, the early morning run came to an end after SBPD said that they were able to make contact with the man to “gain the suspect’s compliance, and he surrendered without incident.”

“Events like this are pretty rare in Santa Barbara,” SBPD spokesperson Nathan Beltran wrote SFGATE via email Friday. “They can happen anywhere but don’t occur in Santa Barbara often.”

SFGATE asked Beltran about what charges were filed against the man in the wake of his alleged early morning activities. “The officers are still sorting things out and it doesn’t sound like the charges have been finalized just yet,” Beltran wrote, confirming that in the interim, he remains in custody and is set to be booked into Santa Barbara County Jail.