Deputies: “Bad Samaritan” arrested in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies say they’ve made in an arrest in what they’ve deemed “the case of the bad Samaritan.”

On Sept. 21, deputies were dispatched to a reported residential burglary on East Cliff Drive. There, a 66-year-old man told them he had been walking home drunk on Sunny Cove Drive when he flagged down a passing car for a ride home.

The driver drove him home, and then waited for him to fall asleep, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Kelly Kent.

The suspect spent several hours taking items from the victim;s home and loading them into his car. He was accompanied by a toddler. The entire incident was captured on the home’s video surveillance system.

The Sheriff’s Office released the surveillance video to the media, and received multiple tips identifying the suspect as 20-year-old Brandon Munoz Hernandez from Watsonville.

Kent said detectives served a search warrant at his residence Thursday, which led them to a second residence in the 100 block of Felker Street in Santa Cruz. At the second home, they arrested him on suspicion of burglary, child endangerment and probation violation.

Kent said Hernandez confessed to the burglary and pointed deputies to a storage facility where the stolen belongings were stashed.

Hernandez was booked into the Santa Cruz County jail and his bail was set at $25,000.