Local : Burglar Passes Out in O.C. Condo

A would-be burglar is in custody today after police found him passed out in an upstairs bedroom of a Monarch Beach condominium, and stereo equipment on a chair by the door “waiting to be stolen,” officials said.

Police had been called about 9:10 p.m. after a guard at the private complex on St. Kitts opened the gate for a resident and a pickup truck sped in behind, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Bob Rivas said. The guard told police that the driver appeared to be drunk.

While officers were inside the complex, police received another call from neighbors who had heard glass breaking in one of the condominiums. Officers arrived there as a man was leaving. “He yelled out that he lived there and that it was OK, and then ran back into the house,” Rivas said.

Officers entered the home through a broken den window. Upstairs, they found the man “passed out on the bed. He got a few cuts from going through the broken window, but that was all,” Rivas said.

Scott Michael Gaffney, 25, of Dana Point was booked at Orange County Jail on suspicion of burglary. Bail was set at $25,000.