At about 9:14pm Thursday, Turlock Police arrived at The Home Depot in the 2800 block of Countryside Drive to conduct follow-up.
Detective Urban had intelligence that a vehicle involved in prior shoplifting calls was in the area.
Officers located the vehicle parked and unoccupied in front of the business.
After surveilling the vehicle for about 20 minutes, two men got into it and drove off.
Officer Rush made a traffic stop at Countryside Drive and W. Monte Vista Avenue.
Several additional officers assisted with detaining the two men and identifying them as driver Steven Lopez, 51, of Turlock, and passenger Romario Robles, 30, of Ceres.
When officers had their dispatcher run the two, they discovered Lopez was unlicensed, Robles was wanted by the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office for a recent shoplifting incident, had a $50,500 misdemeanor bench warrant out of Ceres for possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, and had a $4,500 misdemeanor bench warrant out of Stanislaus County for trespassing.
During a subsequent search, Lopez was found to be in possession of narcotics and tools commonly used to commit vehicle burglaries.
Lopez and Robles were arrested and booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center, Lopez on charges of driving without a valid license, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of burglary tools, and Robles on charges of grand theft, organized retail theft, and his warrants.
