Lucerne man arrested for stealing county of Lake vehicle
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LUCERNE, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol arrested a Lucerne man Friday after he was found in possession of a stolen county of Lake pickup, stolen bank cards and a dead fox.
William Kenneth Pimentel, 26, was taken into custody on Friday morning, according to the CHP’s Clear Lake Area Office.
Just after 8:15 a.m. Friday a concerned citizen called the CHP’s Ukiah Communications Center to report he observed a possible stolen county of Lake vehicle on Highway 20 at Pomo Pumps in Nice, traveling eastbound, the CHP reported.
The CHP said Officer C. Ogburn responded to search the area and, less than an hour after the initial call, located a pickup matching the description of the stolen vehicle parked unoccupied in a vacant lot on Frontage Road, west of Rancho Vista Drive in Lucerne.
The pickup had a license plate from another vehicle attached to the rear. The CHP said Officer Ogburn ran the vehicle identification number located inside the driver's door and the vehicle returned to a stolen vehicle belonging to the county of Lake.
The CHP said Officer Ogburn observed a male briskly walking away from the scene, heading eastbound from the area near the shore of Clear Lake, who then began going through backyards.
Officer Ogburn went to the adjacent side of the houses, locating and detaining the man – who later was identified as Pimentel – without incident, the CHP said.
The stolen pickup had fresh white spray paint over the county of Lake emblems on the doors. The CHP said Pimentel also had fresh white paint on his fingertips.
The CHP also found recently stolen bank cards within the vehicle which had been used to withdraw a large sum of money the same morning. When the CHP did an inventory of the pickup, cards and a booklet with Pimentel's name were discovered within it.
The officer also found a dead fox within the bed of the truck which is illegal to possess, the CHP said.
Pimentel was subsequently arrested and booked at Lake County Jail, where he remained in custody on Friday night.
Pimentel was arrested at the end of July when he was found in Nice, which at that point was under mandatory evacuation due to the Mendocino Complex, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
When authorities located him, he was dressed in dark clothing and wearing a backpack that contained bolt cutters, flashlight and rope.
At that time Pimentel was arrested and booked into custody for being an unauthorized person in an evacuation area, possession of burglary tools, and a violation of probation.
On this most recent case, Pimentel is tentatively scheduled to appear in Lake County Superior Court for arraignment on Monday, according to booking records.
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