The arrest of a man who allegedly snatched a purse at a popular Venice restaurant yesterday was caught on video.

Ho-hum, yeah. But what's interesting is that an LAPD officer lectures him and suggests that if the suspect was simply homeless and hungry, as he claimed, all he had to do was call 911 and food would be delivered.

Really?

The website Venice311.com captured the lecture on video and summarized it:

LAPD officers told the man that if he was ever in need, there were many options available to him for free in the City of Los Angeles. He could even call 911 from a pay phone rather than commit a strong arm robbery.

911 for food delivery?

The homeless guy says he allegedly snatched a purse from a customer at Hama Sushi on the Venice Circle because “I'm starving.” According to the site, he said he was happy to be headed to jail because he could get a free meal.


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Bystanders reportedly ran him down and held the suspect for police.

Here's what the cop says on the video:

Call the police … I'll come over and I'll buy you a meal.

So all this time we've been wasting time and money by calling Domino's?

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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