NEWPORT BEACH : Traffic Stop Leads to Stolen Tuxedos

When a police officer stopped Harold Seaman and Victor Storms for a routine traffic violation, he found enough tuxedos in their pickup truck to outfit a prom.

Seaman, 29, of Upland, a fired tuxedo shop employee, and Storms, 27, of Claremont, were arrested Wednesday after a police officer pulled over the truck Storms was driving because it had expired registration tags and found 114 stolen tuxedos and suits, police said Thursday.

Seaman “started acting suspicious, got out of the car and reached for a fanny pack,� Sgt. Andy Gonis said. “The officer asked him to remove the fanny pack, asked him if there was a gun inside and he said yes.�

Officer Jeff Cantrell then searched the truck for other weapons and discovered the tuxedos and suits in the bed of the truck, Gonis said. The attire, worth about $30,000, had been stolen from a storage facility used by Newport Tux, 2014 Quail St.

Seaman had access to the store’s inventory when he had been employed there as a stock person and may have altered the locks, a co-owner of the shop said.

Maureen John, the co-owner, said she was relieved that the merchandise was recovered so quickly. Police say Seaman apparently had stolen the tuxedos earlier Wednesday.

“I commend the officer for stopping them,� she said Thursday. “Without his foresight, I would have been out a lot of inventory.�

John said Seaman worked for her for about three months and was fired several weeks ago.

Seaman and Storms are being held at Newport Beach Jail on $10,000 bail on suspicion of burglary.

Seaman is also being held on a $15,000 drunk driving arrest warrant issued in Los Angeles County, Gonis said.