This is аn appeal from a denial of defendant’s motion for a new trial and from a judgment of conviction rendered on a jury verdict finding the appellant, C. K. Schellin, guilty of burglary. The sole contention is that certain evidence was erroneously admitted as it was secured by an unlawful search and seizure.
As no questions are raised concerning the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the judgment, a brief summary of the facts concerning the offense will suffice. Appellant and his codefendant Hawvichorst were found guilty of two burglaries in Napa County; the first occurred on March 8, 1963, at Levinson’s Drug Store in the City of Napa; the second, on March 15, 1963, at The Grapevine Inn on the St. Helena Highway north of Yountville. Both were arrested in Napa on March 15, in Hawvichorst’s car which contained a number of items stolen from The Grapevine Inn and some of the tools used in the drug store burglary. An accomplice, one Vierra, testified for the prosecution about their participation in the drug store burglary. Hawvichorst denied the drug store burglary but admitted The Grapevine Inn burglary. Hawvichorst testified that on March 14, he and the appellant had been drinking together all day and went for a ride about 8:30 or 9 p.m. Appellant’s defense was based on Hawvichorst’s testimony that he had committed The Grapevine Inn burglary alone while the appellant remained in the car, unconscious from an asthma attack.
We now turn to the facts concerning the arrest of the appellant and Hawvichorst and the search in question. On March 15, 1963, about 2:30 a.m., Sergeant Meyer, the deputy sheriff in charge of the investigation detail in Napa County, received a call from his office at his home. The Napa sheriff’s office had been advised by Sergeant Dahl of the Intelligence Unit of the Oakland Police Department that they had observed a vehicle with known burglary suspects going north on the freeway on the evening of March 14. The information supplied by the Oakland pоlice was that two or three male subjects in a 1960 Nash Rambler were intent on burglarizing a place that contained a safe on the highway north of Napa. The license number of the vehicle was given.
Sergeant Meyer immediately got dressed and drove his car *248 north on the St. Helena Highway to Rutherford. Since he did not observe anything unusual, he turned around, returned to the Thomas Garage, parked and radioed for the night patrol. It was then about 3:15 or 3:30 a.m. A short time later, two night patrolmen arrived at the Thomas Garage. The three officers parked in a position to view the traffic on the two-lane highway. There was little southbound traffic on the highway at that time.
A few minutes later, a southbound vehicle slowly came by. The officers turned on their headlights and observed a Nash Rambler with two men in the front seat and what appeared to be a piece of furniture or a cabinet in the back. The officers followed the vehicle in order to check the license number. They noted that the license number corresponded with that supplied by the Oakland Police Department, that the vehicle appeared to be heavily loaded and sagged to the left in the rear. The officers continued to follow and radioed the Napa Police Department for assistance. At about 4 a.m., five police units stopped the Nash near the west end of Marshall Bridge. The car pulled over as soon as the red light and siren were turned on.
Sergeant Meyer got out of his car and walked to the Nash on the driver’s side, leaving instructions with Deputy Robinson to be careful in approaching the vehicle on the passenger side and to be sure nothing was thrown out. As Meyer walked to the car, he looked in the back to see if anyone else was in the car. He observed a television set on the back seat of the car and two pry bars on the floor on the right side near the door. When Meyer asked the occupants of the Nash to get out on the driver’s side, both of them did. Hawvichorst, whо had been driving, got out first rather reluctantly and slowly. Hawvichorst was asked for his name and a cheek was made on the registration of the Nash. No questions were asked about the television set. The appellant was not interrogated.
The аppellant and Hawvichorst were handcuffed and taken to the Napa police station, while another officer drove the Nash to the sheriff’s office. Appellant then accompanied Sergeant Meyer to the sheriff’s office and placed his personal property on the booking counter. When Sergeant Meyer asked him if the keys on the counter were keys to the Nash, appellant replied they were not and that they were his keys. Meyer then asked: “Then you don’t mind if I try them.” Appellant replied: “No, they don’t fit.” Meyer interpreted this remark to mean that the appellant did not object and he opened the trunk of the Nash by using the appellant’s keys. *249 The trunk was heavily loaded with assorted mеrchandise and tools: the former included whiskey, cartons of cigarettes, several sticks of salami and some vociferous cheeses; the latter included a power drill, numerous wrenches, a large drill bit, a heavy ax-ended hammer and а brace with a bit attached, rope, some gloves and a pair of binoculars.
Sergeant Meyer with several deputies proceeded northbound on the highway to ascertain whether any establishment had been victimized. Eventually, they arrived at The Grapevine Inn north of Yountville and observed that the door on the south side of the building had been forced open. The interior was in a state of shambles with the juke box broken into, the television lead-in wire broken and the set missing. Papеrs were strewn on the floor behind the bar and in the office. In the kitchen, several sacks of potatoes had been dropped on the floor and the walk-in refrigerator door was ajar. The lock on a small cabinet had been broken and pry marks were visible on a door leading into a storeroom.
At about 6 a.m., the police notified Reams, temporary manager of the inn, of the burglary. Reams immediately came to The Grapevine Inn and noted that six to eight cases of liquor, cigarettes, salami, other meats and cheeses, the television set, the money in the juke box and a flashlight were missing. The items found in Hawvichorst’s car were identified as the missing items. Subsequently, it was established that the screwdriver and some of thе other tools found in the Nash had been used in the March 8, 1963, burglary of Levinson’s Drug Store.
Hawvichorst’s testimony concerning the circumstances of the arrest completely substantiated the above except for two details: Hawvichorst stated thаt he got out of the car immediately and that a young deputy sheriff grabbed him and threw him over the hood.
The trial court found that the officers had reasonable cause to arrest and that the subsequent search of the automobile was a rеasonable search incident to the arrest.
As the arrest and search were made without a warrant, the burden rested on the prosecution to show proper justification (People v.
Haven,
*250
“A search made as an inсident to a lawful arrest, that is one based upon reasonable cause to believe that the person arrested has committed a felony, is a lawful search even though made without a warrant”
(People
v.
Esters,
Reasonable or probable сause for arrest without a warrant requires such a state of facts as would lead a man of ordinary care and prudence to believe and conscientiously entertain honest and strong suspicion that the person arrested is guilty of сrime
(People
v.
Tyler,
At the time the vehicle occupied by aрpellant and his companion was stopped, the officers had information, received about 2:30 a.m. from the Oakland Police Department, that the Oakland police had observed a 1960 Nash Rambler containing two or three burglary susрects going northbound on the freeway toward Napa and that they had been informed that the suspects intended to burglarize a place with a safe located north of that city. Later, between 3 and 4 a.m., a vehicle meeting the exаct description and license number supplied, was observed traveling southbound toward Oakland on a sparsely traveled two-lane rural highway near Napa. The vehicle was traveling slowly with its two occupants in the front seat and a piеce of furniture or a cabinet in the back; it was heavily loaded and sagging to the left in the rear. The appearance of the vehicle was clearly corroborative of the information supplied by the Oakland policе. Under these circumstances, it was eminently reasonable for the officers to believe that the occupants of the vehicle had committed a burglary and were returning to Oakland and the officers had probable cause to mаke the arrest. We conclude that the search was a proper and reasonable one incident to the lawful arrest and that the trial court properly admitted the evidence in question.
People
v.
Michelson,
Appellant argues that the information supplied by the Oakland Police Department is to be viewed as information from an informant of unknown reliability which cannot be the basis of a lawful arrest and search. It is well settled that police officers may rely on information coming to them from official sources
(People v. Davis,
In view of our conclusions that the officers had reasonable cause to arrest and search the vehicle at the time it was stopped, we need not discuss aрpellant’s remaining contentions relating to the exact time when the arrest occurred.
The appeal from the order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial is dismissed.
The judgment is affirmed.
Shoemaker, P. J., and Agee, J., concurred.
Appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied July 15, 1964. Traynor, J., and Peters, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.