This is a recap of some noteworthy crimes committed in the area:
• METH PIPES LEAD TO ARRESTS: CERES - A Wednesday, May 8 traffic stop for an equipment violation at Hatch Road and Herndon Avenue led to the arrests of two men for possession of meth pipes filled with meth.
At 7:25 a.m. Officer James Riley stopped a car. He arrested both Dean Harrington, 46, of Modesto, and James Martinez, 52, of Modesto, for the pipe and drug possession charges.
Martinez was also arrested for being a sex offender who had not registered in two years.
Harrington was charged with possession of a tear gas canister in the car.
Deputy Chief Mike Borges said many drug users are being found storing their drugs in the pipe in hopes that it escapes detection by officers.
• SYRINGES LEAD TO JAIL: CERES - Gary Weaver, 60, of Ceres, was arrested for possession of hypodermic syringes after he was found passed out in the 2200 block of Rockefeller Drive on May 8.
Officer Mike Vierra was rolling through the area just before noon and saw Weaver lying on the ground. The officer thought Weaver had been stricken with a medical issue. He was unresponsive but was roused. A search the man turned up hypodermic syringes believed used in drug abuse.
• ELDER ABUSE SUSPECT ARRESTED: CERES - Markus Relei, 19, of Modesto, was arrested May 8 during a traffic stop in the 1300 block of Herndon Avenue because he had no front license plate on his vehicle. When Officer Kiashira Ruiz ran Relei's driver's license, his name showed as being wanted by the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department for elder abuse.
He was arrested during the 935 a.m. traffic stop also for driving on a suspended license.
• BROTHER ALLEGEDLY ASSAULTS SISTER: CERES - A family fight ended with the arrest of Anthony Flores, 37, of Ceres, for striking his sister in the nose and mouth on Wednesday, May 8.
Police were called at 10:22 p.m. to the fight in the 2700 block of Willow Creek Court. Police said an argument between the siblings escalated when the male grabbed the sister's dog. She felt he was going to harm the dog in retaliation and in the process she got hit in the face. The sister was bleeding heavily from the nose and lip.
Flores said the punch was an accident. He was booked on charges of assault with great bodily injury.
• DUMPSTER DIVER FOUND WITH STOLEN PURSE: CERES - A man who was found illegally dumpster diving in the area behind Save Mart in the Whitmore Plaza on early Thursday morning was found with a purse that had been taken blocks away.
Officer Greg Yotsuya was patrolling behind the store at 1:52 a.m. when he saw Madeira Long, 59, hanging around the loading docks but when saw officers rode off on bike. He was stopped and found with pockets bulging with bottles of prescription drugs to other people. A purse was tied to the bike, which had been taken from the 2800 block of Della Street where an employee absent-mindedly left her purse lying on the ground during a cigarette break.
Long was arrested and booked for possession of stolen property.
• GUN FOUND ON POT SMOKERS: CERES - Police found a stolen gun in a car which was checked out because its occupants were smoking pot inside Ceres River Bluff Regional Park early Friday.
Ontel Security personnel called police at 12:13 a.m. because the occupants were on a secluded area of the park smoking pot. Police responded and searched the car and found a loaded and stolen .357 revolver in the car which was accessible to the driver.
Zouhir Alfareh, 20, of Modesto, was arrested on charges of possession of stolen property, being a felon in possession of a handgun, having a loaded weapon in a public place and carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle.
• BIZARRE CAR JACKING TAKES PLACE: CERES - Police are baffled at a report of a man carjacking another man's car at gunpoint on Friday morning only to ditch it a half mile away.
Officers Jeremy Caron and Greg Yotsuya got flagged down at 1:15 a.m. in the 1500 block of Ridlon by a man whose car was stolen. The suspect was described as a Hispanic male in his early 20s with short hair 5-foot-9, 180-190 pounds, cleaned shaven and wearing dark clothing. The victim said the suspect ran up to his car, pointed a gun and demanded the car. The suspect drove off with the victim chasing on foot.
The vehicle was left running and abandoned at Don Pedro Avenue and Blaker Road. The suspect was seen getting into another vehicle and getting away.
"It doesn't make sense," said Deputy Chief Mike Borges.
• WOMAN HIGH AT EATERY: CERES - Adriana Nuro, 29, of Ceres, was arrested Friday evening, May 10 after she appeared to be under the influence of some drug.
At 8:25 p.m. Officer Brittney England was sent to Foster Freeze where Nuro was heard saying she needed to turn herself into police. England detected that Nuro was under the influence of a narcotic and arrested her for being under the influence.
• EX-BOYFRIEND WANTED FOR VANDALISM: CERES - A 20-year-old Salida man is wanted for allegedly causing $1,500 in damage to his ex-girlfriend's vehicle after he was locked out of her home.
Omar Sanchez, 20, of Salida was identified as a "person of interest" after the Saturday morning crime was committed at 12:10 a.m. in the 3400 block of Ninth Street.
Sanchez was not allowed into the home so police said he started jumping on her car and kicking out the headlights and windshield. He fled the area but as Officer Greg Yotsuya was taking a report Sanchez returned to the scene and fled when he saw the officer. Yotsuya gave chase but lost the suspect when the pursuit was picked up by Officer Jeremy Caron. Sanchez allegedly entered Colony Park Estates Mobilehome Park at speeds of up to 60 mph so Caron backed off only to find that Sanchez had crashed into a coach and caused minor damage before fleeing. Sanchez is wanted for felony vandalism, evading arrest and hit and run.
• PARKED CAR HIT & DRIVER ARRESTED: CERES - A resident of Las Casitas Mobilehome Park, 2841 Fowler Road, was arrested Saturday evening after he was seen crashing into a parked car and then proceeding to drive to his space.
Witnesses said at 11:09 p.m. Eduardo Chavez, 33, of Ceres, was driving drunk and crashed into a parked vehicle and kept going. Witnesses followed Chavez and
Chavez was arrested for hit and run and DUI.
• SUSPECT ARRESTED WITH BURGLARY TOOLS: CERES - A Ceres man faces charges that he attempted to break into the UPS Store in the 2900 block of Whitmore Avenue early Sunday morning.
A 2:10 a.m. burglary alarm call was responded to by Officer Jon Vera to alarm call. As Vera pulled in he spotted and stopped Randall Roy, 32, of Ceres, trying to ride off on a bicycle. Roy said he was out "canning" and had been delving into dumpsters but he was searched because he is on probation for a prior burglary conviction. Vera found Roy in possession of a screwdriver and other items used as burglary tools with paint on them and fresh pry marks on the UPS door.
Roy was arrested and booked for attempted burglary, possession of burglary tools and violating the terms of his probation.
• DRUGS FOUND ON BICYCLIST: CERES - A bicyclist who caught the attention of a Ceres police officer for riding northbound in the southbound lane of Ninth Street near Pecos Avenue was arrested Sunday afternoon after he was searched and found carrying heroin.
Officer Mike Vierra was patrolling the area at 3:45 p.m. when he saw 32-year-old transient Richard Cortez riding illegally. Cortez tried to flee from the officer, probably because he had felony warrants issued in his name. Cortez was released from state prison under Gov. Jerry Brown's early release program designed to reduce state prison inmate population.
Vierra had locked his patrol car before running after Cortez, which proved a wise action since a carload of three to four Hispanic males pulled up next to it and tried to break into it, said Deputy Chief Mike Borges.
• MAN ARRESTED AT LARGE FIRE: CERES - Christopher Tavares, 34, of Ceres, was arrested Sunday evening after he refused to twice comply with warnings to not walk through the cordoned off area of a major structure fire in the 3100 block of Valley Brook Drive.
The area had been taped off to keep the public out as Ceres firefighters were battling a fire that started with an explosion.
At 9:32 p.m. Tavares ignored Sgt. John King's command to not take a short cut to his home through the secured scene and was arrested and faces charges of resisting and/or delaying an officer and interfering with fire personnel.
• MEN ARRESTED AFTER DRIVE-THRU LANE ASSAULTS: CERES - Two Tracy men were arrested late Sunday after one allegedly drove drunk and both allegedly harassed personnel in a drive-thru lane at a Ceres restaurant.
At 11:10 p.m. an employee of Jack in the Box on Hatch Road called 9-1-1 about a possible intoxicated driver who came through the drive-thru lane. The clerks said they could not understand what the pair were ordering and that they began harassing personnel so they were refused service. The two then allegedly threw beer bottles at the window employee.
Thirty minutes later the men were spotted by Jack employees in the drive-thru lane at the neighboring Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, which was closed. The pair began yelling at the closed window, grew upset and began throwing more empty beer bottles.
Police arrived and the driver fled southbound on Mitchell Road before being stopped at Garrison Avenue. The occupants were pulled out of the car at gunpoint. When officers searched the car they found a scared 13-year-old boy hiding in the back seat. He was a cousin of the two suspects who were supposed to be giving him a ride home. The boy told officers he was fearful of his cousins' behavior and he was released to his mother.
Driver Christopher Estrella, 25, of Tracy, was arrested on charges of evading an officer, driving under the influence, child endangerment, and making threats to Officer Kiashira Ruiz.
Passenger Jason Torres, 29, of Tracy, failed to comply with officers' demands to lift up his shirt to reveal his waistband so a police canine was released to help take him into custody. Torres was charged with resisting arrest, child endangerment and public drunkenness.
