SIMI VALLEY : Market Owner Faces False-Alarm Charge

A Simi Valley meat market owner has been arrested on suspicion of setting off an emergency alarm after waiting for an hour for police to respond to a graffiti complaint.

Dino Andrade, 29, is the first person to be arrested for violating the city’s year-old law prohibiting intentional false alarms. Andrade was arrested last week and released. He faces a maximum of one year in jail and a $500 fine.

“We got a call from an alarm company saying there’s a robbery in progress, but Andrade had just called to test our response,” Police Lt. Bob Robbins said.

Andrade, owner of El Ranchito Meats in the 1600 block of Royal Avenue, said he pressed the alarm in frustration because police officers had not responded to a call he had made an hour before denouncing graffiti vandalism.

Andrade said that he first called police after he noticed that his van had been smeared with graffiti and that a group of teen-agers carrying spray cans were gathered nearby.

Andrade said he believes that he is innocent because he didn’t know he was committing a misdemeanor. “I just have a button here that says ‘emergency,’ but what does the word emergency come down to?”

Andrade vowed to fight the charges in court.