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Craigslist posting leads to arrest of Santa Rosa man suspected in Cotati burglary

By RANDI ROSSMANN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 12:12 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 12:12 p.m.

A Santa Rosa man selling a green hardtop for a Mazda sports car posted an online for-sale ad and got a visit from a potential buyer.

Instead of a sale, the meeting turned into an arrest as the the top had been stolen and the potential buyer was an undercover Cotati police officer, said Cotati Sgt. Steve Bourns.

Michael Thomas Herrin, 33, was taken into custody and remained in the Sonoma County Jail Tuesday in lieu of $11,000 bail.

Cotati police learned of the missing car top on Sunday.

The Mazda Miata's owner was away on vacation and the car had been parked at an East Cotati Avenue residence. A person watching the house for the victim on Sunday saw the car was missing its roof.

Officers did some research and spotted a Craigslist ad for what could be the missing hardtop, Bourns said.

Worth about $1,200, the green top was for sale for $700 or “best offer.”

On Monday officers contacted the man via text messages and set up an appointment to see the top. Posing as a buyer, an officer went to an apartment on Mendocino Avenue Monday evening.

Herrin was arrested after officers determined they had a match.

Herrin was arrested on suspicion of burglary, possessing stolen property and violating his probation, Bourns said.

 

that's ******* great!

 

I am appoint.

Miatas have been disappearing like crazy over here.

 

Good.

 

I wonder if the cops rolled up in a sweet Miata.

C

 

A long time ago I was trying to buy an engine and trans. Things went shady and I asked the guy for the VIN...and the ******* idiot gave it to me; it turned out to be a local's stolen car. The police arrested him and he got no jail time, only probation.

On a side note, I wish we could pick-up Sonoma and move it to a Capitalist state, so I could live there.

 

Tried to by an engine & trans as well and the seller got shady when I asked for VIN. Seller hung up saying I "asked too many questions".

 

that is GREAT.

so many tops being stolen around here its crazy. they should have gang raped that dipshit before taking him into custody

 

always good to hear about a thief getting caught

 

Interesting how they did enough research to get this one right

 

Whenever I see or hear about a green hardtop I think of Hustler.

I will be engraving mine in a few spots (both conspicuous and inconspicuous) and using security screws and specmiata style bracketry. It will only slow them down.

 

I need to figure out how to wire a tazer to the car body. The clack clack of those things still make our skins crawl from training. Any robber that hears that sound and has been tazed before should run in fear or get hit ***** shocked off.

 

Thanks to the Honda kids moving over to Mazda's we are now the new Civic Si

 

What's the thing with probation anyway?

"You've done this, and it gives 3 years of jail, but you only have to serve if you do something AGAIN"?
It's like a ******* get-out-of-jail-free-card.
Or heroin, the first time is always for free..

Has the world gone Monopoly?

 

No, they just make it easy for career criminals, since its the only thing they can do right(because they are opressed, remember?). But you go out and steal something or sell a dimebag of pot and see how big of a sentence you get.

 

That is fantastic I wish we could get cops around here to do stuff like that. They will just tell you to call your insurance they will take care of it.

 

Norway's that way too, "petty" crimes like this never get investigated.
A friend of mine found his car on pallets one night, and even though the parking area has video surveillance, they still didn't care to investigate.

The problem with this, is that criminals know that the only risk they face, is the owner showing up with a baseball bat.
So in general, these kind of crimes are without risk and punishment.

Islamic countries do this the right way.
If they steal, chop off their ******* hands. That way, you don't get repeat offenders.

From what I understand, some states in the US practice a 3-strikes-and-you-get-25-to-life deal.
It should be 3 strikes, and you ******* hang by the neck until dead. Worldwide.

 

i opened this thinking someone was selling a hard top for 11,000 lol

funney enough last week a local had a red hard top(mint condition from the pics) on craigslist for $2500 firm.. i almost died laughing.. it was eventually flagged and not reposted

 

I’m surprised that the department allocated the resources to 1) investigate Craigslist to find the stolen top, and 2) send an undercover officer over to make the arrest. And all this for $900-1200 worth of stolen goods?

As much as I hate thieves, especially those whom steal hardtops, it’s my opinion that there are far worse things going on which should be scrutinized and investigated.

 

Watched Speeders the other day, and an officer gave a dude a ticket for playing music too loud in his car.
He said he could ticket people if the sound could be heard more then 45 ft away from the car.

According to gun statistics, 3.5 people die from a bullet every hour in the US.

Good thing he taught that loud-playing bastard a lesson!