Man arrested in Petaluma burglary

A Petaluma woman had just arrived home at her Lakeville Circle apartment early Friday and was headed upstairs when she encountered a stranger on the stairway, police said.

The intruder, luckily, fled, apparently having been interrupted while rifling through her closet and dresser, police said.

A witness saw a man running into a nearby apartment in the southeast Petaluma neighborhood and later directed police to that location, however.

Officers questioned those inside, and the victim and witness identified a suspect named Daniel Uribe Cuevas, 23, as the man the victim found in her home shortly before 4 a.m.

Cuevas, a Petaluma resident, was arrested for suspicion of burglary and was to be booked into the Sonoma County Jail with bail of $40,000, authorities said.

Police said the victim's property appeared to be intact, the thief apparently leaving everything behind when he heard the resident come home.