Crime Blotter: May 2-9: Parking Lot Beating a Mystery

Rude awakening

Authorities don’t know who beat a 61-year-old man senseless and left him bleeding in a Carmichael parking lot last week.

The victim, whose identity is being withheld by Sacramento County sheriff’s officials, was discovered lying in an abandoned parking lot in the 6400 block of Fair Oaks Boulevard just after 3 a.m. on May 2.

Deputies were conducting a routine patrol of a business parking lot checking for suspicious activity, said sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

One of the deputies saw a parked car, “which is uncommon for 3 a.m., and decided to investigate further,” Ramos added. “The officer saw some blood in the car and decided to take a walk around the business. That is when he found the victim.”

Ramos said the battered man had “lots of dried blood around his head and face area.”

He had suffered a head wound and abrasions to his knees, hand, hips and elbow.

The victim was unable to tell deputies what he was doing at the location, Ramos said.

“In addition to being injured fairly seriously, he was quite intoxicated and suffering the effects of that,” Ramos explained. “He was somewhat incoherent and lethargic when officers tried to get detailed information regarding what had occurred.”

The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment to his injuries. No follow-ups have been done since the incident took place, Ramos said.

Low priority

Unless new information finds its way to investigators, two break-ins at local businesses will likely go unsolved.

On March 24, the owner of at 7800 Fair Oaks Blvd. chased off a man in a yellow rain jacket who was attempting to pry his way into the Carmichael jewelry store. Crime scene investigators with the sheriff’s department recovered the suspect’s burglary tools, including a sledgehammer and an 18-inch pry bar, which Ramos said the suspect probably used on the business’ metal security gate and metal bars on the rear door.

A sheriff’s report said no items were taken, as the suspect fled on foot after being confronted by the store owner.

Earlier the same month, on March 1, the Radio Shack at 4100 Manzanita Ave. was successfully burglarized by an unknown number of individuals.

According to a sheriff’s report released Thursday, the front door was pried open and a door to the back storage room was kicked in. The store is equipped with an alarm system that alerted sheriff’s officers to the break-in, but the burglars were gone by the time authorities arrived.

The suspects took several electronic items from the back room and display shelves. The cumulative value of the items taken is between $5,000 and $6,000, Ramos said.

Asked about the pair of crimes, Ramos said that both were active investigations, but not priority ones.

“We got 18,000 property crimes last year — approximately 3,500 of them were residential burglaries and 1,500 business burglaries,” Ramos explained. “Most cases are ‘pended’ and we focus first on the cases that have some presence of solvability factors.

“This particular one has virtually none,” he said of the Radio Shack burglary.

And while the jewelry store owner briefly saw his intruder, he was unable to provide a detailed description.