Man tries to steal beer and brandishes knife at Costa Mesa liquor store; suspect arrested

A 27-year-old Costa Mesa man was arrested Tuesday on allegations that he tried to steal beer from a liquor store and brandished a knife.

Costa Mesa police were called to Sunshine Liquor at 724 W. 19th St. just after 5 p.m. A store employee told officers that a man ran out of the business with packs of beer he had not paid for, Sgt. Dan Miles said.

The clerk chased the man on 19th Street and the man tried to hit him on the face with cans of beer, Miles said.

Eventually the man dropped the beer and fled. About 10 minutes later, he returned to the store and brandished a folding knife, Miles said.

After a brief search with help from a Huntington Beach police helicopter crew, Renato Meza was arrested on suspicion of commercial robbery. He was booked into Orange County Jail with bail set at $50,000, according to jail records.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN