Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Man Held After Falling Through Store Ceiling
A man who said he was looking for food was in jail on suspicion of burglary Sunday after he fell through the ceiling of a Costa Mesa drugstore, police said.
The suspect, identified as Ronald Charles Mills, 41, of Newport Beach, climbed a ladder to the roof of Vista Drugs, 21 W. 19th St., about 8:15 p.m. Saturday and removed a vent to a fan to enter the building, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. John Pherrin said.
After climbing down the fan tunnel, the suspect stepped onto ceiling panels and fell through, Pherrin said. When he realized that a Costa Mesa police helicopter was hovering above the store and that the locked doors prevented his escape, he waited for officers to arrive.
Mills, who was arrested Saturday on suspicion of commercial burglary, told police that he was looking for food.
“I don’t know why he’d (burglarize) a drugstore to look for food,” Pherrin said. “We fed him. He was extremely cooperative.”
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