Morro Bay Police arrested a man for allegedly breaking into donations boxes at the Maritime Museum and also breaking into boats stored in a nearby, fenced, storage yard.
According to a news release by MBPD Sgt. Grant Hasselbach, police were notified at 8:58 a.m. Monday, Jan. 5 of a burglary at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum, located at 1154 Front St. Three outdoor donation boxes at the Museum had been broken into and an unknown amount of money taken.
The Harbor Department has a boat storage yard at that location and officers discovered it too had been broken into.
“A search of the area for surveillance footage,” Sgt. Hasselbach said, “revealed a white male suspect wearing a white shirt around his face, plaid shirt, jeans, and a gray backpack conducting the thefts at the donation boxes.”
The video pegged the time of the break-ins between 4:40 and 5 a.m. It didn’t take long to find a suspect.
Just a few hours later, at 11:15 a.m. Sgt. Hasselbach said officers responded to a disturbance at the closed Rite Aid Store, located at 740 Quintana Rd., where they contacted a suspicious subject.
“On scene,” he said, “officers came across a male, identified as Shane Willhite, sitting in the area wearing the exact same clothing as observed in the surveillance video.
“The backpack seen on the surveillance footage was adjacent to Willhite along with the white T-shirt used to conceal his identity on camera.”
Police also reportedly found in his possession “several items that were stolen from boats within the boat yard and a pair of bolt cutters.”
Sgt. Hasselbach said Willhite confessed to the thefts and use of the bolt cutters “to obtain access to the donation boxes.”
Willhite, 45, was booked into County Jail on suspicion of petty theft with a prior conviction, vandalism, and possession of burglary tools. According to information from the County Jail, he was being held on $20,000 bail.
“The investigation is ongoing for additional victims,” Sgt. Hasselbach said. “Any information please contact the Morro Bay Police Department.”
