Municipal court employee arrested, accused of stealing woman’s wallet from shopping cart

SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio municipal court employee was arrested Monday after police officers investigating a hit-and-run crash he reported found the man was wanted on an outstanding theft warrant.

Luis Cazares faces a charge of misdemeanor theft between $100-$750, court records show.

A spokeswoman for the city of San Antonio confirmed Cazares worked as a warrant officer, but city officials have not responded to multiple requests from KSAT to confirm his status following his arrest this week.

Cazares taken into custody after reporting hit-and-run crash

San Antonio police were called by Cazares to a body shop Monday after he noticed someone had hit the passenger side of his vehicle while he was inside a store, SAPD records show.

When officers ran his driver’s license, it came back with an active arrest warrant for Cazares.

The warrant, issued in February, accuses Cazares of stealing a woman’s wallet from a shopping cart outside a North East side H-E-B in May 2023.

A woman said she left her wallet in the cart after returning the cart to an outside corral. The woman returned to the cart within four minutes but found that the wallet had been taken, SAPD records show.

An H-E-B loss prevention employee then reviewed surveillance footage, which showed Cazares grab a handheld basket and place it over the wallet. Cazares then grabbed the wallet and walked directly to his car, charging paperwork shows.

Investigators were able to identify Cazares using his vehicle’s registration information.

Cazares was booked into jail Monday and has since been released on bond, court records show.

He is scheduled to be arraigned in County Court 2 on July 8.

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.