Hospital golf cart thief gets 6 months jail for grand theft
A young man who stole a golf cart from a Rancho Mirage hospital where he was being treated, then skipped a scheduled court appearance, pleaded guilty to a felony grand theft charge Wednesday and will spend six months in county jail, followed by nearly three years of supervised release.
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Angel Lopez Roldan, 21, stole the golf cart worth about $4,000 from Eisenhower Medical Center last Dec. 27.
According to court documents, Roldan was a patient in the hospital’s emergency room that day, but ripped out an IV and walked through the hospital. Surveillance footage shows Roldan — who was on probation for burglary at the time — exiting the hospital near where the golf cart was parked and driving off with it, authorities allege.
He was taken into custody in April and pleaded not guilty to the charges before being released from county jail. He was slated to appear May 3 for a felony settlement conference, but never showed up, prompting a judge to issue a warrant for his arrest.
California Highway Patrol officers arrested him on May 26 on Golf Center Parkway in Indio.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Harold W. Hopp sentenced Roldan to three years in jail, but suspended all but six months of the sentence. Upon release, Roldan will be under supervised release for 30 months.
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