Dennis RomeroA Beverly Hills investment broker has been arrested twice as a suspect in “a series of window smashes” in Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills and Beverly Hills, according to police.
The LAPD says that after searching the 58-year-old's Encino home last week, cops came up with “bb guns, sling shots, firearms and marbles, similar to the items used in the vandalisms.”
Perhaps more disturbing to us:
Credit: Michael Poret / Facebook
This photo of President Obama's motorcade during his April 2010 visit to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Poret writes this on his Facebook page:
Saw Obama from my office window today. They closed Rodeo.
Secret Service? Anyone?
His Facebook “activities and interests” include porn star Jenna Jameson, Miss Cougar California and the Wilshire Westgate Medical Pharmacy.
Anywho, the LAPD says it arrested Poret July 12 on suspicion of felony vandalism. In a statement, the LAPD alleged he did the deed late at night and early in the morning.
Beverly Hills police appear to have set off the case against Poret.
About 10:30 a.m. on July 3, Poret's car was stopped because it fit the description of one seen near a previous case of vandalism in that city and because it had no plates, Capt. Mark Rosen told the Weekly.
During the stop “a call came out of another vandalism just-occurred,” Rosen says. Oops. It was about another window shot out.
Poret was arrested on suspicion of vandalism, and Beverly Hills police, aware of the rash of similar vandalism in the Valley, let the LAPD know about the suspect, Rosen says.
When cops took a look-see inside Poret's car during that stop, they found “a sling-shot, other weapons, projectiles,” he said.
Beverly Hills police were looking at 20 vandalism cases in the wake of the suspect's arrest. The Los Angeles Times reported some of those targets were homes in the 90210 area; another 50 cases were being checked out in the Valley.
Poret's UBS office is on Rodeo Drive near Wilshire Boulevard, and his home is not far from the Ventura Boulevard stomping grounds of whoever was destroying windows in the Valley.
What's the alleged motive? One-percenter rage?
L.A. cops told the Los Angeles Daily News Poret's not talking. But they did state that ” … the incidents of vandalism had been escalating in recent months.”
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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