Cop, not car-theft suspect, causes fright

Shortly before noon on Monday, August 12, a sheriff’s helicopter began circling over my neighborhood — just north of the Bancroft Drive and Campo Road intersection in La Mesa — announcing over their loudspeaker that they were looking for “a car theft suspect that fled on foot in this area.”

The suspect was described as “a male Hispanic, 30 years old, wearing a grey shirt and green shorts; if [seen], call 911.”

I looked out my bathroom window, as I always do when a sheriff’s helicopter is flying nearby, and saw a man standing just barely within my view under a tree by a front bedroom window. Startled as he looked my way, I jumped away from the window and then ran to grab my cell phone and camera.

Unable to see him after returning to the bathroom window, I moved toward the front bedroom. Closer to the road now, but still in my front yard, I realized that he was not the suspect everyone was searching for; this guy, the one I saw lurking outside my windows, was in a blue uniform.

Then, without a word having been said, all of the law-enforcement people that had been swarming all over the neighborhood suddenly left, including the sheriff’s helicopter.

Unsure if their quick departure meant he was still being sought after or if the suspect had been apprehended, I contacted the Lemon Grove Sheriff’s Station to find out. According to the dispatcher I spoke with, the “car theft suspect was apprehended and is now in custody.”