Imperfect Crime

Last Saturday night, April 4, a knife-wielding teenager trying to rob a video-rental store in Tijuana’s Buena Vista neighborhood looked familiar to the store’s owner. And for good reason: the same young man had returned to the scene of a crime he allegedly committed two weeks earlier.

Store owner Dalila Flores flagged down a passing patrol car and told officers that a young man armed with a knife had just tried to rob her, identifying him as the same teen she had reported to police for an identical crime on March 22.

Officers arrested Fidel Nevares Ramos, 18, whom authorities said had been quickly released from jail following his March 22 arrest. Flores still had the paperwork from the criminal complaint she filed two weeks earlier to show officers on April 4.

Police said they searched Nevares Ramos and found a knife in his possession, prompting them to arrest him again, this time on charges of assault.