Man Arrested for Masturbating on West Beach

A Santa Barbara man was arrested last Thursday for allegedly masturbating on West Beach approximately 15 or 20 feet away from two female sunbathers.

The reporting party, a vacationing firefighter from Oakley, California, and the two sunbathers, ages 18 and 16, made a citizen’s arrest of 34-year-old Luis Meza-Gonzalez before police arrived on the scene.

The firefighter told officers that he had observed Meza-Gonzalez masturbating intermittently over the course of 20 minutes while lying on the sand. He reportedly used a baseball cap to conceal his activity.

Meza-Gonzalez was arrested for lewd conduct and child annoying — admitting to detectives he engaged in lewd behavior — and he was booked into County Jail with bail set at $2,500.