A man in San Francisco has been charged with breaking into an FBI car and stealing government gear worth thousands of dollars. This includes flash-bang grenades and a ballistic vest, which he is said to have later traded for drugs.
On August 9, Gregory Acosta Alvarez was charged in federal court with stealing government property.
Court records show that early on August 7, an FBI agent found that his government-issued Ford 150 truck had been broken into while he had left it parked on Natoma Street in San Francisco. More than a dozen pieces of equipment were taken from the truck. These included different kinds of saws and surveillance gear, a torch kit, a gas deployment gun, a camouflaged ballistic vest and ballistic plates with FBI marks, a box of flash-bang grenades, and just for fun, a defibrillator.
A review of security footage showed that Acosta Alvarez rode his bike by the truck around 12:30 a.m. on August 7 and then got off to break in. There was more security video that showed Acosta Alvarez riding his bike to a hotel less than a quarter mile away with the stolen goods.
The San Francisco Police Department was at the hotel on August 7 in the afternoon talking to the manager when Acosta Alvarez walked into the hallway and was arrested right away.
The bicycle seen on the security video of the break-in was found in his room, along with some of the stolen items, such as the defibrillator and 23 flash-bang grenades. The gas gun and the ballistic gear, which were worth about $1,500 each, were still missing, though. When police asked Acosta Alvarez about it, he admitted that he had traded those things for $20 worth of crystal methamphetamine earlier that day.
Acosta Alvarez is being held in San Francisco County jail without bail right now. He is being charged with burglary, grand theft, having stolen goods, and having drugs.
