Mill Valley Man Arrested for Allegedly Stealing Pickup Truck in Novato

A Mill Valley man who was released from prison this year under the reformed "three-strikes" law was arrested by Novato Police Sunday morning for allegedly stealing a pickup truck on allegations he stole a pickup truck from a Novato gas station.

Officers responded to a report of a stolen vehicle at the Shell gas station, at 1390 S. Novato Blvd., at about 9 a.m., police said.

The victim had told police he left the keys to his Ford pickup truck inside it when he went into the store, according to police.

When the victim exited the store, the truck was gone, and a customer had told the victim the truck had been taken and let him know which way it went, police said.

Officers in the area found the truck on southbound U.S. Highway 101 and stopped it just north of the Ignacio Boulevard off-ramp, police said.

Dale Curtis Gaines, 56, of Mill Valley, was subsequently arrested for auto theft and was booked into the Marin County Jail. He remain in custody in lieu of His bail was set at $25,000.

Gaines was convicted of a theft-related crime in Sonoma County in 1997, according to news reports. Because he had two prior convictions for residential burglaries, he was sentenced to 27 years to life under the three-strikes law, according to the Marin Independent Journal. That life sentence was reduced to time served under Proposition 36, the 2012 ballot measure that allows lifers to seek a new sentence if the third "strike" was not a serious or violent offense, the newspaper reported.

–Bay City News Service contributed to this report. Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. – Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.