The streets of Hollywood never cease to amaze with far-out crime.

Today's example: As crowds gathered today to mourn the death of Shirley Temple near her hand prints at the Chinese Theater, a man was seen – on camera – smashing the windows of a parked LAPD patrol car and taking a laptop that was inside. A Darth Vader impersonator looked on incredulously, of course.

In fact, police tell us, … 
]
 … the same suspect allegedly hit three other police cars parked nearby, shattering their back passenger windows with a piece of scrap he might have picked up at a nearby construction site.

LAPD Officer Richard French says the incident happened just before 1 p.m. on the northwest side of Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue.

The cops might have been there to deal with crowds gathering to remember Temple, he said, but he wasn't 100 percent positive about that.

A KTLA News crew was also at the scene, and they videotaped the apparent crime.



The suspect, who was not identified, was arrested on suspicion of theft, French said. Yes, he said, officers were nearby and nabbed him quickly.

But why, you ask?

French said, who knows? “He had some kind of a problem,” he said. “I don't think that's something most people would do.”

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