Drive-in Service : Short Arm of Law Nabs 3rd Suspect

For the third time this year, Buena Park police have made an arrest in a most unlikely spot--the Police Department parking lot.

Monday, the suspect was a 19-year-old man suspected of stealing a 1987 champagne-colored Mercedes convertible from a nearby auto dealership.

Earlier this year, two other people pulled into the lot, off Beach Boulevard, only to wish they had gone elsewhere.

There was the man who stole a car off a service station jack in March and learned, as he raced away, that the car had only three wheels. He was chased by a caravan of angry motorists into the Police Department parking lot where he went “for his own protection,” Officer Terry Branum said. Then came the woman who got a speeding ticket and drove to the Police Department to complain--in a stolen auto.

“The other two were brain surgeons,” Branum said Tuesday. “But this guy (the suspected Mercedes thief) wins our rocket scientist of the year award.”

Kenneth Gale Oliver was arrested Monday night on suspicion of grand theft auto, Branum said.

About 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oliver was spotted in the Police Department parking lot unloading a bicycle from the trunk. A policeman passing by took note of the scene, became suspicious and radioed in the auto’s registration number.

Inside the police station, an auto theft detective who had taken the stolen vehicle report from managers of the Beach Boulevard car dealership recognized the car description and ran outside into the parking lot, Branum said.

The thief had put 500 miles on the $58,000 convertible since it was stolen.

“It was one of our tougher investigations,” he added.

Oliver, an unemployed Costa Mesa resident, was booked into the Orange County Jail, where he remained Tuesday night in lieu of $10,000 bail, authorities said.