At about 3:35am Monday, Turlock Police responded to a suspicious person in the 1700 block of English Avenue.

The caller reported a man had been casing vehicles in the area and was last seen riding away on a bicycle southbound on English.

Officer Gallup arrived on scene within minutes and located a man matching the provided description standing next to his bicycle at English Avenue and Winans Lane. The man was contacted and identified as Sean Richardson, 39, of Turlock.

When Gallup had his dispatcher run Richardson, he discovered he had a $3,000 misdemeanor bench warrant out of Stanislaus County for petty theft and theft.

Richardson was arrested and a subsequent search led to the discovery of property that appeared to have been stolen, including a laptop.

Gallup spoke with the caller on the phone, who stated that their vehicles hadn’t been broken into, and Richardson stated that he’d just found the laptop.

Since there wasn’t anything to hold him on at the time, Richardson was released on a citation for his warrant.

The laptop was eventually able to be powered on and a woman’s name popped up on it, who turned out to be the caller’s mother.

Gallup contacted the caller and her mother at their residence, and it was discovered that the property Richardson had been found to have been in possession of belonged to the caller’s mother. 

The property had been taken from an unlocked vehicle in the residence’s driveway, and the caller hadn’t realized the vehicle had been left unlocked, which is why she stated their vehicles hadn’t been broken into when she hadn’t noticed any forced entry.

While Gallup was taking the report, Officer Nunez attempted to make contact with Richardson at his residence, but he wasn’t there.

The stolen property was returned to the victim and its value was estimated to be in excess of $950, constituting grand theft.

A probable cause declaration was completed and Richardson is now wanted for grand theft.