44-year-old shoplifter with over 90 prior arrests arrested again hours after jail release
The 44-year-old career criminal is well-known to local businesses and law enforcement agencies for his repeated thefts, which he uses to support his drug addiction by selling the stolen merchandise.
44-year-old shoplifter with over 90 prior arrests arrested again hours after jail release
Jesse Leonardo Otero, a notorious shoplifter with over 90 prior arrests, was recently apprehended by police in Pleasant Hill, California, just hours after being released from jail on misdemeanor charges.
The 44-year-old career criminal is well-known to local businesses and law enforcement agencies for his repeated thefts, which he uses to support his drug addiction by selling the stolen merchandise.
The career criminal allegedly hurled swears and insults at a KRON reporter who asked him, “Jesse, don’t you get sick of getting arrested?” as he was cuffed outside the shopping center.
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He is known to police throughout the Bay Area, where he travels by BART trains to hit different communities to commit crimes.
His lengthy rap sheet shows he goes after both small businesses and big-box stores – and often returns to steal from them again to the extent that many store employees know him on a first-name basis.
“Since we started knowing who he was, we would call him out by name and say, ‘Jesse – you’re not allowed to be here,'” Daisy Erns, store manager at Five Little Monkeys toy store in Albany, told KRON.
Otero typically cited or briefly jailed before he’s released back out on the streets again.
He rarely steals more than $950 worth of products, according to police, which keeps him out of jail due to a 2014 change in state law.
That year, California residents voted to up the felony charge threshold for shoplifting from $400 in stolen property to $950, making most shoplifting crimes misdemeanors, according to the outlet.
Police are then left with no choice but to set him free despite his incredible criminal record.
“Nowadays, with the way that the filing standards have changed and the law is written, if it’s a petty theft under $950, he’s given the same ticket that you would get for running a stop sign,” Pleasant Hill police officer Jacob Williams told KRON.
“So that person is no longer booked into jail based off the shoplift alone – even if we are aware of prior convictions on his criminal history,” he said.
Otero is currently in jail after his latest arrest. It’s unclear if or when he will be released.
He was also arrested on November 21 in Concord after committing a theft at a mall. He ran onto an interstate highway as he tried to flee police before he was detained.
Just days later on November 24, Otero stole $340 worth of items from a bike store in Danville, according to the owner.
The Contra Costa District Attorney’s office has consolidated Otero’s 31 arrests from the past year into a single misdemeanor case, with a jury trial scheduled for the end of the year.