Jan. 16—Santa Fe police on Wednesday arrested a man accused of stealing a car after a previous attempt to take the “elusive” suspect into custody had failed, police wrote in a news release.
Police arrested Omar Aguirre, 35, early Wednesday morning and booked him into Santa Fe County jail. Aguirre faces charges of resisting arrest, receiving or transferring motor vehicles and possession of burglary tools, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
Police went to Aguirre’s home on the south side Saturday evening in response to a tip about a stolen car, but he evaded officers, police said in court records in the case. When police arrived at the address on Platte Road, Aguirre was sitting in the vehicle, a white Hyundai Sonata, and he started the car and drove it through a chain-link fence and away from police, according to a a police affidavit filed in the case.
A Santa Fe police detective wrote he had had “a plethora of encounters” with Aguirre.
Officers arrested Aguirre on Wednesday after finding him asleep in the vehicle off Rufina Street, police wrote in the release.
Aguirre faces charges in several pending cases, including a felony charge of credit card fraud and receiving stolen property, court records show.
Aguirre faced a car theft charge in a case that was filed in August 2024, along with a charge of resisting officers. Those charges were dismissed the next month by prosecutors without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled. A notice of dismissal states the charges were dismissed “pending further investigation.”
The charge against Aguirre was one of at least four charges related to motor vehicle theft filed in Santa Fe County in the past two days.