Published: August 13, 2008 10:37 am      

Skateboard used to break into vehicles

San Marcos — Skateboards are well established, at least among a certain crowd, as a fast and uncomplicated way to zip around town.

Turns out they’re handy in other ways as well.

Police said a 19-year-old man arrested for breaking into two vehicles early on Tuesday not only used his skateboard to get to the scene of the crime but also as his criminal instrument.

San Marcos Police Sergeant Fred Wisener said someone at the San Marcos Station saw Juan Phelipe Nino using his skateboard to smash out windows of vehicles and them “rummaging through them” shortly before 4 a.m.

That witness phoned police and Corp. Lee Leonard subsequently found Nino hiding in tall grass behind one of the burglarized cars.

“He was detained, Mirandized and admitted using the skateboard to break into them,” Wisener said, adding that it’s the first time he’s ever heard of a skateboard being used that way.

Apparently scared off when police arrived, Wisener said officers found Nino’s skateboard inside the second vehicle he’d smashed.