By Jim Clark

Somerville Police officers were dispatched to the Rent A Center on Broadway last Thursday morning on reports of a group of people drinking outside the store.

Upon arrival, the officers spotted three individuals in the vestibule area of the store, who they were familiar with as they were frequently observed in the lower Broadway area.

According to reports, in the past month alone there had been four incidents at the Rent A Center involving a group of people drinking alcohol in the front of the store.

Two of the three men had their hands inside their jackets, concealing large objects and they were ordered by the officers to show their hands.

The concealed objects that the two men were concealing turned out to be opened, mostly full, 25 ounce cans of beer.

When asked to identify themselves, the men reportedly stated that they did not have IDs. Various names and dates of birth were given to the officers, but none of them matched official records.

The officers once again asked the men for their names and dates of birth, but they failed to correctly repeat the information they had just given. At this point the officers determined that the two men were intentionally lying about their names and dates of birth in an attempt to conceal their identities.

The officers handcuffed both of the men and they were transported to the Somerville Police station.

At the station, they were booked in the usual manner. One of the men eventually identified himself at the booking window as Jose Guillen. The other man identified himself as Jose Mario Posada Landaverde.

After Guillen was fingerprinted, his fingerprint search result revealed that he had an alias under which he had been booked by his middle name of Elias, and there was an active arrest warrant for him by that name out of Boston District Court.

Both men were charged with miscellaneous municipal ordinance violation and violation of city ordinance open container.

Additionally, Guillen was booked on a warrant charge of disorderly conduct,