By Mary O’KEEFE

A man suspected of taking a customer’s wallet at a local liquor store returned to that store a few days after the theft, was recognized and arrested.

Ronald Quiroa, 28, of Van Nuys was arrested on Sept. 23 after he was identified using the store’s surveillance video equipment.

On Sept. 15, a customer at the liquor store reported that he had left his wallet on the counter after making a purchase. When he realized what he had done, the customer returned but the wallet was gone. A surveillance video allegedly showed a man, later identified at Quiroa, walking up to the counter at the store, with the wallet on the counter. The suspect had a bag of chips and a beverage which he paid for with cash from his own wallet. He then placed the chips on top of the victim’s wallet and walked out of the store with his items and the victim’s wallet.

“Then eight days later Quiroa walked back into the same store,” said Sgt. Ray Harley, Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station.

The victim was in the store at the time and allegedly recognized the suspect from the surveillance photo. When  Quiroa left, the victim followed him to a nearby construction site and called the sheriff’s.