On Thursday, July 14th, 2022, at 1:00 am, a Turlock Police officer near the intersection of N Daubenberger Rd and W Tuolumne Rd, Turlock, observed a vehicle violate the California Vehicle Code, so he made a traffic stop on it.

The officer also noticed that the vehicle looked like a vehicle that had been being used to commit larcenies from vehicles in the area it was in at the time.

The officer made contact with the vehicle’s driver and identified him as Pedro Lopez Castellon, 39, of Denair.

The officer removed Castellon from the vehicle and asked for consent to search it, which he gave.

The search led to the discovery of an item belonging to one of the victims of the previous larcenies.

The officer then noticed that Castellon was also wearing one of the same pieces of clothing that he had been seen wearing during one of the previous larcenies.

Castellon was arrested.

Shortly after Castellon was arrested, he began telling officers that he was having difficulty breathing because he had taken a fentanyl pill just prior to them making contact with him. American Medical Response responded and ground transported Castellon to a local hospital. He was released a few hours later and then ultimately booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center on charges of grand theft.

Detectives and officers are continuing to review surveillance camera footage provided by victims to determine Castellon’s involvement in other larcenies.

The investigation remains on-going.