Police arrested a man who earlier in the day allegedly stole a Ryobi pressure washer from the Home Depot store on Hatch Road.

The theft was reported at 8:50 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 5.  Employees followed the suspect, Aaron Armes, 41, of Ceres, out of the store while taking pictures of him and the convertible he left in driven by a Caucasian woman with blonde hair. Officers searched the area but were unable to find the pair.

At 11:09 p.m. that evening, however, Officer Krandall Vandagriff was on patrol and spotted a vehicle matching the description of the suspects pulling into the parking lot of 7-Eleven on Herndon Road. The photos of the license plate confirmed it was the same car. Armes was positively identified as the suspect from the other photo taken at Home Depot.

Armes was on searchable probation and searched and found to have drugs in his pockets. He had initially provided his brother’s name as his own.  He told police that he had been walking by the store earlier in the day and just found the expensive equipment in its box sitting outside of the store. He acknowledged picking it up but said he put it down when told to do so by an employee.

Armes was booked for possession of narcotics and providing a false identification to a police officer. The theft case is pending further investigation.