Investment banker, 58, arrested after 'smashing windows with a slingshot and marbles' because he 'got a thrill from it'
By Laura Cox
PUBLISHED: 17:40 GMT, 20 July 2012 | UPDATED: 21:22 GMT, 20 July 2012
A hot-shot investment banker, 58, has been arrested, accused of wrecking havoc in Los Angeles.
Michael Poret has allegedly been driving around and shattering windows since the beginning of the year, using a slingshot to fire marbles and nuts at buildings. Police said he must have 'got a thrill from it'.
Wearing white gloves he would pull up across the street from his target in a sliver SUV, police said, and fire objects from the driver's seat.
He operated under the cover of darkness, launching his attacks either late at night or early in the morning.
Surveillance footage captured a 'greying man', the LA Times reported, vandalising the properties from within his car.
But police remain clueless about his motive. 'Your guess is as good as mine,' Luie Velasquez of the Los Angeles Police Department said.
'For whatever reason, these individuals get some sort of thrill from smashing windows.'
Poret was first arrested in Encino on July 3 after police officers spotted a slingshot in his car during a traffic stop for a vehicle code violation. A subsequent search of the vehicle turned over brass knuckles, knives and slingshot projectile.
He was arrested again on Thursday after police raided his home and found a stash of weapons including BB guns, firearms, marbles and other objects similar to those used to shatter windows.
The 58-year-old was suspended from his post as vice president of investments at UBS Financial Services after his arrest.
He had worked there for three years after being headhunted while at Merrill Lynch.
Co-workers said they were shocked to hear of his arrest, describing him as 'a little on the quiet side'.
He has been charged with felony vandalism and is being held at Van Nuys jail on $60,000.
Police said they think he is connected to at least 70 cases in the area, some of which are private properties in Beverley Hills.
Others include coffee shops, an autism treatment centre and a beauty salon, the LA Times reported.
Stefan de Nocker, owner of an office building that was targeted three times, said having his windows fixed has cost him $7,000 When Poret was arrested, De Nocker was 'dumbfounded'.
'I mean, I know that an investment bankers are a little nuts,' he told the Times. 'But you know, maybe the market is that bad. I don't get that. He must be a very frustrated guy.'
On his Facebook page Poret, a San Diego University graduate, has wrote in the quotations section: 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
'I would rather live my life as if there is a GOD and die to find out that there isn't. Than live a life as if there isn't and die to find out that there IS.'
