Police Tuesday announced the arrest of a suspect who was found squatting in a Santa Ana park storage room, where a loaded firearm, a cache of ammunition and other allegedly stolen property was seized.
The arrest of Ruben Perez, 37, of Santa Ana, stemmed from a call that police received at 6:38 p.m. Monday reporting that an unidentified man had forced entry into a storage room at Carl Thornton Park at 1801 W. Segerstrom Ave.
“When the calling party contacted the male suspect, he threatened the calling party saying he had a `strap,” according to a Santa Ana police statement. “When officers contacted the male, he was uncooperative and a minor use of force occurred.”
A search of the storage room, which the suspect had made into his living quarters, revealed “a plethora of stolen items,” according to police, who said they seized a “loaded 45-caliber stolen handgun, approximately 18 magazines of various calibers all loaded with ammunition, and a weight vest with the weights removed and replaced with loaded magazines, which had been placed in the weight pockets for easy access.”
One of the magazines was an extended magazine, which holds 31 rounds of 9 mm ammunition, according to police.
Perez was booked at the Santa Ana Detention Facility and is expected to face various weapons charges, police said.