Local News in Brief : Clerk Who Admitted Crimes on TV Arrested

A clerk selling guns in a Simi Valley department store was arrested after he was recognized by a security guard as a man who identified himself as a career criminal on a network television show, police said Sunday.

Simi Valley Police Officer John Kunkle was at a K mart store on Tierra Rejada Road to arrest a shoplifting suspect about 11:30 a.m. when a store security guard, who was not identified, told him he had recognized a clerk working in the sporting good department from a “20-20” show broadcast last week on the ABC television network, said Sgt. Bob Gardner of the Simi Valley Police Department.

During the television show, the man, Kent Andrew Jensen, 25, said he was a career criminal who had committed a series of crimes, including several robberies and burglaries, said Gardner. Jensen was interviewed for a segment of the show about problems of people who had been hyperactive as children, Gardner said.

A check of the clerk’s name showed he was wanted on four warrants, including one charging him with robbery in Monterey County. Jensen, of Thousand Oaks, also was wanted on two Simi Valley traffic warrants and a misdemeanor hit-and-run driving charge in Monterey County, Gardner said.

Jensen admitted he had appeared on the television show, police said.