MESILLA - There was a rotund little man rustling about in the wee hours of Christmas, but it wasn't Santa, and he wasn't going in through the chimney.

It allegedly was Fermin Carrillo Jr., and he was going in with an acetylene torch to steal from a U.S. Marine and Toys for Tots coordinator he felt owed him, according to the Do a Ana Sheriff's Office.

Deputy Mesilla Marshal Edward Dimatteo was on patrol just before 2 a.m. Saturday when he reported seeing a red glow on the side of Sucker Punch Sally's, according to documents filed in court by sheriff's investigator Bo Nevarez. Dimatteo then spotted a 1997 green Chevy Blazer with its lights off, pulling out of the parking lot of the motorcycle shop at 2920 Avenida de Mesilla.

As the SUV turned onto Avenida de Mesilla, Dimatteo heard the distinctive sound of a motorcycle rumbling to life.

Pulling over the SUV's female driver to find out what was going on, Dimatteo was told the woman's husband had gone to his former workplace to pick up equipment. The motorcycle he'd heard then pulled up next to them, and Carrillo, the driver, said he was "getting equipment from the motorcycle shop there."

Did the owner, an ex-Marine, know that?

"No," Carrillo allegedly admitted. He then added, when Dimatteo told him he would be in touch with the businesses owner, "OK, let me just tell you the truth. I'm taking his equipment. He owes me money."

Carrillo allegedly added that he needed the money because he was out of work and that

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he planned to give it back.

As for the motorcycle, "I took (that) too," Carrillo allegedly admitted, according to court documents.

Carrillo's companion told police the couple had been driving by late at night when Carrillo announced his plan, parked, shook the doors of the business, and, after a few minutes, started loading up the back seat of the SUV with items, then told the woman, "go."

In that time, Carrillo, who is 5-feet, 5-inches tall, 180 pounds, had allegedly been getting into the building by cutting a padlock with an acetylene torch, he told police. Inside, Carrillo said, "I took whatever I found." Then, he hopped on a new, black and pewter custom "Pan-man" motorcycle from Purgatory Cycle Works, the company belonging to the manager of Sucker Punch Sally's.

Carrillo - who claimed to be a former employee at Sally's - said he didn't intend to steal the motorcycle, but had just hopped on to tell Dimatteo who'd pulled over his wife that she was not "involved," court documents state.

Carrillo, an El Pasoan, was charged with breaking and entering, burglary, theft of more than $2,500 in motorcycle and welding equipment and unlawful taking of a vehicle, and booked into the Do a Ana County Detention Center. Las Cruces Magistrate Court Judge Kent Wingenroth set Carrillo's bond at $40,000 cash-only.

The woman was not charged.

Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462