Dec. 26—A man discovered alone inside the south-side Walmart store on Christmas Day faces charges including criminal trespass and resisting arrest.
Rodolpho Florencio Mendiola, 53, has also been charged with aggravated burglary, attempted larceny of more than $20,000 and criminal damage to property, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
Police arrested him Wednesday at the Walmart Supercenter on Herrera Drive while the store was closed for the holiday. Police alleged in court documents Mendiola hid inside a clothing rack just before the store closed on Christmas Eve and emerged the next day.
Advertisement
Advertisement
A store manager called police Christmas afternoon after he went into the store to retrieve some personal items and saw a man walking around near the sporting goods section, according to a police statement of probable cause filed against Mendiola. Police were dispatched to the store at about 3:45 p.m. and arrested Mendiola inside the store, the statement says.
Police wrote Mendiola damaged an airsoft gun — a low-power replica gun used in certain sports — several tablets and some security devices, and that he had “staged” three carts around the store that held about $25,000 in merchandise.
Santa Fe police wrote in a news release “at one point, Mendiola forced entry into a knife cabinet and armed himself.”
Officers wrote they reviewed surveillance video footage of Mendiola “loading up carts full of items” and walking around the store “eating multiple items and drinking beverages which he obtained inside the store.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Police wrote Mendiola admitted to officers he planned to steal the carts full of merchandise from the store and take them to an encampment, and he told officers “he knew he was going to prison for this incident.”
Mendiola has been accused of shoplifting from the Walmart store two other times in the past few years, police wrote in the release, but he has not faced criminal charges for those alleged incidents. He faces counts of criminal trespass and larceny for an alleged shoplifting incident at a Santa Fe Dollar Tree store in October.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
