A woman who has worked for Palisades Electric Company for nearly 15 years, locked the door to the business and went to pick up lunch.
“As I was coming back, this man approached me and shouted, ‘Give me back the money you stole,” she said. “He grabbed for my lunch,” which fell to the ground.
Then the man, who is believed to be homeless, tried to grab her purse, shouting “Let me see what’s in your purse.”
She held onto her purse and got in her car, locked the doors and called 911. She also called local resident Bruce Schwartz.
“What a nightmare,” the woman told CTN.
Schwartz, who is on the Pacific Palisades Task Force for Homelessness (PPTFH), knows the stores and employees at that location from his beautification efforts at Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.
The police and Schwartz arrived roughly at the same time, about a half an hour later.
The police found the man sitting at the bus stop, and the employee identified him.
The man tried to tell the police that some blonde lady tried to steal his money and the police wondered at first if there was a misunderstanding.
But Schwartz told the police that the employee had been attacked. The man tried to grab her lunch, spilling it to the ground, then tried for her purse. Schwartz described the man as an “old and nasty dude.”
The employee told CTN that the man had been at Von’s parking lot at 7:30 a.m. and had asked her to buy him beer. She said she had refused.
The Metro stop in front of Vons has long-been an end of the line stop, where everyone, including the homeless, have to exit the bus.
The proximity of that stop to the beach means it is constantly under surveillance by the PPTFH. The Vons and the local 76 Station are often the targets of shoplifting from homeless who have ridden the bus until the end of the line.
The man was arrested and taken downtown.
Can the government take away Metro passes from arrested homeless people? Or can our city Council pass a law to take away passes to arrested homeless people.