Would-be Tarzan faces new charges, this time in a gas station holdup
A Huntington Beach man who was arrested last week when police say they found him swinging from trees and claiming to be Tarzan faces up to life in prison now that authorities say they’ve connected him to two other crimes including an armed robbery.
John Williams Rodenborn, 37, was taken into custody Aug. 4 near the Santa Ana Zoo’s monkey exhibit on suspicion of methamphetamine possession. Police said Rodenborn, who was shirtless and covered in mud, had scaled a wall to get inside the zoo and climbed trees.
Two days later, Costa Mesa police said they arrested Rodenborn after chasing him through a flood channel and into a Newport Beach garage, eventually cornering him at a trash bin.
Police said he’d taken a woman’s phone from inside an art gallery in Costa Mesa before it was open to the public. Officers used a tracking app on the iPhone to find Rodenborn, sparking the chase, according to authorities.
Now, prosecutors say, they’ve connected Rodenborn to a robbery in April.
In that case, Rodenborn asked a clerk for cigarettes at a Chevron gas station on Beach Boulevard in Westminster, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.
He allegedly then pulled a gun on the employee and demanded money while threatening to shoot.
After the clerk put cash on the counter, Rodenborn took it and fled, leaving behind a cigarette butt, authorities said.
Westminster police used security camera footage and DNA from the cigarette to identify Rodenborn, prosecutors said.
Rodenborn faces 46 years to life in prison if he’s convicted on charges of robbery and criminal threats related to the gas-station case. He also faces up to nine years in prison if convicted of burglary and aggravated trespassing related to the iPhone case.
Rodenborn has a criminal history that includes two previous convictions for residential burglary and one for vehicle theft between 1999 and 2006, according to prosecutors.
He’s scheduled to be arraigned on the two new cases on Aug. 18.
Rodenborn is in Orange County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail in the robbery case and $100,000 bail in the burglary case, according to the district attorney’s office.