Woods

The People appeal from a judgment granting defendant’s Penal Code section 995 motion to dismiss the first count of the information, which charged him with a burglary of a vehicle (Pen. Code, § 459). The only question on appeal is whether the court below properly concluded that the People had failed to prove an essential element of the offense as defendant entered a vehicle whose doors were locked by reaching into a window that had been left open deliberately. For the reasons set forth below, we have concluded that the judgment must be affirmed.

The pertinent facts as established by the transcript of the preliminary hearing are as follows: On September 22, 1979, as part of a decoy operation, Officer David Fontana of the San Francisco Police Department, placed a coin purse containing $3 and a Pentax camera on the passenger seat of his private automobile, a 1978 Volkswagen. The bills and the camera were marked. Fontana parked the vehicle in a parking lot, locked the doors and rolled up all the windows except for the passenger window which was rolled down approximately five and one-half inches. He did so to provide an exact measure for his testimony and to prevent any damage…