Suspicious woman arrested at Costa

By Gassia Ashikian
Staff Writer

The Manhattan Beach Police arrested a 20-year-old woman at 3:30 p.m. on March 6 at Costa for stealing iPhones, wallets and backpacks from the gym lockers and for the possession of illegal substances.

Juniors Khalil East and Khalil Sonko saw a suspicious woman running out of the men’s locker room with backpacks in her arms. Senior Nia Taylor and Sonko confronted the woman and sent notice to nearby school security guards.

“She kept denying what she did,” Sonko said. “She told me that she was looking for her boyfriend’s schedule but refused to tell me who her boyfriend was.”

There were no security guards around at the time of the arrest, but Sonko was able to get the woman to leave the locker area.

“While the woman was leaving the main campus hallway, students informed me about the woman, and I was able to detain her and send her to School Resource Officer John Loy’s office,” security guard Ramon Estrada said.

East and Sonko caught the woman stealing two backpacks and cell phones.

“I thought that I hid my phone in a safe spot and was shocked when I came back into the locker rooms and saw that it was missing,” freshman Amanda Goetz said.

Loy advises students to keep valuable possessions in their locked lockers.

“In our community, 83% of crimes are preventable,” Loy said. “Costa provides lockers to avoid issues like these.”

Although the public records have not been released, Loy assumes that the woman will be charged for theft and possession of illegal substances.

“It is disappointing to know that things like this happen often,” Sonko said. “It makes me angry that people have the audacity to steal from students.”