Sebastopol man arrested in a string of Petaluma burglaries

A string of burglaries kept officers on the move Saturday, going from one theft to another before a suspect was captured with stolen goods at a Kohl’s store, Petaluma police said.

Police got the first call at 7:30 a.m. from Friedman’s Home Improvement on North McDowell Boulevard for a report of a commercial burglary.

At 5:10 a.m., a man, later identified by police as Evan David Thomas, 25, of Sebastopol, had gotten into the garden center and began collecting merchandise. When confronted by an employee, he fled with multiple power tools, police said.

Officers were provided with video surveillance footage of the suspect but couldn’t locate him.

At 8:38 a.m., police were dispatched to Prince Albert Court, where a man found his unlocked vehicle had been rummaged through sometime during the night. Several small items were missing, including a cellphone, police said.

At 1:25 p.m., officers were called to Kohl’s for a shoplifting suspect, who was in the store at the time. Officers confronted Thomas, whom they recognized from the Friedman’s surveillance footage.

Thomas was in possession of several items from the home improvement store, as well as the cellphone stolen from the car, police said. He was arrested and booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of burglary and possessing stolen property.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5204.