Petaluma police arrest wanted sex offender

Officers had been looking for the man for nearly a month.|

Petaluma police on Wednesday apprehended a convicted sex offender who evaded arrest last week when police tried to detain him on Sonoma County Superior Court warrants for suspected drug and weapon offenses.

Thomas Steger, a 44-year-old transient, had been threatening employees of a local tow company, as well as their family members, after his vehicle was towed, Sgt. Lance Novello said. He also had failed to register with the city as a sex offender, officials said.

On Wednesday, officers who had been looking for Steger for nearly a month received information he was in an area behind East Washington Place shopping center on Kenilworth Drive, Novello said.

Steger ran from police, crossing Highway 101 on a pedestrian bridge, police said. Officers met him on the other side of the highway and arrested him on Stuart Drive.

Steger had a Glock-style airsoft gun and a functioning handheld portable police scanner, and he told officers the weapon was for his own protection, according to police.

Steger was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on six outstanding Sonoma County Superior Court warrants for his arrest on suspicion of failing to register as a sex offender, possession of a dangerous weapon, possession of narcotics and being under the influence of a controlled substance, police said. He also was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. He was being held on $50,000 bail, records show.

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