May 7-14: Parolee Caught White-Handed

Secret of the clenched fist

A traffic stop in Fair Oaks landed a parolee behind bars for drug possession charges early Saturday morning.

Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies ran the license plate of a silver 2000 BMW 740i they saw near Sunset Avenue and Sunrise Boulevard shortly after midnight Saturday. The car was registered to Michael Legault, 36, of Sacramento, whom the deputies also determined was on active parole for past drug convictions.

Legault pulled over for the flashing lights and consented to a search, which included him being handcuffed as a standard safety precaution when dealing with parolees, explained sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

“After Legault was cuffed, and the search of the car was done, Legault started to move and squirm about,” Ramos said. “Then the officers discovered that he was clenching a small, plastic baggie in his left fist.”

The bag contained an off-white crystal substance later determined to be methamphetamine, said a sheriff’s report.

Legault was arraigned Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court on a single felony count of methamphetamine possession.

Wonderwall

A Sunset Avenue convenience store found itself the target of brazen robbers for the second time in five months.

Around 1 a.m. Thursday, two male suspects broke into a commercial suite that sits vacant beside the Save Mart Liquor & Food. Using unknown means, the two suspects burrowed through an adjacent wall and gained entry to the Fair Oaks convenience store, where they looted the cash register and unsuccessfully attempted to pry open a small in-store ATM.

Ramos said the business’ financial loss “has not been determined.”

Surveillance video inside the store captured the burglary, but didn’t get adequate images of the suspects, who were both described as men between the ages of 20 and 40, 5-foot5 and 175 pounds.

Following the crime, the two burglars reentered the suite through the hole in Save Mart’s interior wall and exited through a smashed window.

Five months ago, on Dec. 8, 2010, one of the convenience store’s owners chased off a gunman who attempted to stick up his employee.

Stolen comfort

A Fair Oaks home recently purchased in a foreclosure sale was robbed of an air conditioning unit earlier this month.

According to a sheriff’s report, an unknown number of suspects stole the unit from the Sunset Avenue home’s exterior around 6 p.m. on May 7.

Redfin.com listed the 1,920 square-foot residence as being sold four days later.

Ramos said the air conditioning unit was still at the property the weekend before the theft, “and when the new owner went to take possession of keys a few days later, it was gone.”

Now that’s not cool.