Alert Employee Helps Nab Laptop Thief

An alert employee of a local business helped Belmont police capture a suspect who had stolen a laptop from his office.

According to a spokesperson for the ,  at approximately 3:45pm Wednesday, an employee was in the warehouse of a business in the 400 block of Old County Road, when he saw a man walk past carrying a laptop computer under his arm.  The employee thought it was suspicious and quickly checked the front office and found that a laptop, which had been on a desk was gone.

The employee ran after the man with the laptop and confronted him.  The employee was able to recover the laptop and tried to detain him, but after a brief struggle, the laptop thief fled the scene.

The employee flagged down a passing Belmont police patrol car and a short time later, officers located Lawrence Andrew Howard, age 54 of Daly City, in the 700 block of Old County Road.

Howard, who is on parole for burglary, was arrested without incident and booked into the San Mateo County Jail, charged with second degree burglary and violation of parole.

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