Sept. 10
Punked?
While patrolling Solvang,
deputies noticed a lifted truck without mud flaps. The driver also was not
wearing a seat belt, and the driver made two left turns without signaling. The
deputies noticed the driver kept turning and looking at the deputies and sped
up as if to get away from them. They conducted a traffic stop. One deputy
approached the driver, a Solvang man, who appeared to be very upset. He started
yelling at the deputy and accusing him of harassment. The driver said he was being targeted by deputies. The whole time the driver
was complaining, the deputy noticed his arms were moving but he could not see
the driver’s hands. The deputy asked the man to show his hands, but the man
said no and that he didn’t have to. They argued and the deputy drew his gun and
ordered the man show his hands. The driver said, “No, go ahead and shoot me.”
The deputy ordered the man to open the car door. The man would not comply, and
when the deputy tried to open the door, the man held it closed. The driver then
opened the truck door and kept saying, “You want to see what’s in my hand,” and
threw a cell phone at the deputy. Eventually, the driver exited the truck and
continued to talk about how he was being targeted. He said, “I’m not gonna let
you guys punk me anymore; I’m gonna stand up to you guys and take matters into
my own hands.” Deputies tried explaining the sequence of events to the man, but
he continued to be verbally aggressive and argumentative. The man was arrested
with multiple charges including resisting arrest and assault on a police
officer.
Sept. 9
Public urination
While on patrol, a deputy
saw a man who appeared to be urinating in the Veterans Hall parking lot. He
approached the man and saw a wet area at the man’s feet. The deputy asked the
El Segundo man what he was doing, and the suspect looked down at his feet and
said he did not speak English. The man’s friend came over to translate. The man
admitted he had been drinking and urinated in the bushes by the parking lot.
The deputy cited him for public urination and released him to the care of his
friend.
Sept. 8
Trespassing
A Buellton woman reported
there had been trespassers on her property. She said she was at home when she
saw an unknown car driving toward her home. There was a middle-aged man driving
and a young woman passenger. The car stopped in front of the Buellton woman’s
house and the man got out. He began banging on the woman’s front door and
demanding she come out. The passenger remained in the car. The Buellton woman
exited her house back door, and walked through her horse stalls. She picked up
one of her “no trespassing” signs and put it on the windshield of the unknown
car. She told the man he was trespassing and had to leave. He told her, “I’m
going to take your car.” He did not leave until the Buellton woman called the
Sheriff’s Department. She said she did not know the man or his passenger. She
didn’t know what they wanted. She filed a trespassing report.
Santa Ynez car vandalism
A Santa Ynez man reported
there was damage to his car. He said when he went out to his car the morning of
Sept. 8, he noticed the side view mirror had been broken and the glass was
shattered. The man estimated the damage to cost about $120.
Sept. 7
Wallet thief caught
A Santa Ynez man at the
Chumash Casino was observed by casino security picking up a wallet that had
been dropped on the floor. Cameras show him going through the wallet, taking
out cash and a credit card and then throwing the wallet in a trash
can. Inside the Santa Ynez man’s own wallet, deputies found yet another
credit card reported to be stolen. Security cameras show the man trying to hide
the card while he was being detained. A background check revealed the man has
been convicted of drug use and theft in the past. He was taken to the Lompoc
Jail on multiple charges.
Drunk in public
Deputies were dispatched to
a residence in Solvang after a report of a suicidal woman. Upon arrival,
deputies contacted the subject, who was not suicidal but drunk. The woman was
uncooperative and irrational. She said she had been drinking a lot of vodka. The
woman’s parents and sister had tried controlling the woman, but no one could do
so. She was unable to follow simple instructions and while looking for her
wallet, she stormed out of the house and into the driveway. Once in the
driveway, deputies put the woman under arrest for public intoxication. She was
taken to the Lompoc Jail.
Sept. 6
Inside out pants
Deputies responded to a
report of a fight in Santa Ynez. When they arrived at the reported location,
they saw a man walking in the road. The man’s pants were on inside out and his
zipper was down. He appeared drunk and had trouble maintaining balance. He also
could not explain a large scrape on his knee. The suspect, a Buellton man, said
he had been at party where he consumed about seven or eight beers. Deputies
asked why the man’s pants were inside out, but the man appeared unaware his
pants were inside out. They told the man he could fix his pants, but when the
man tried, he fell over. Deputies could find no one willing to care for the
man, and the man had not way of getting back to Buellton. He was arrested for
public intoxication and taken to the Santa Barbara County Jail.
Sept. 5
Parole violation
A deputy stopped a car in
Solvang for having an expired registration. He asked the driver and passengers
if any of them were on active parole. One passenger, a Lompoc woman, said she
was on parole, which the deputy later confirmed via a records check. The woman
appeared to be under the influence of drugs. The deputy asked the woman when
she last used methamphetamine, and she said she used it on Sept. 4, in
violation of her parole. The woman was arrested for drug use. A urine test
later tested positive for THC and methamphetamine.
Sept. 4
Unlicensed driving
A deputy noticed a car in
Solvang with one headlight. The driver, a Lompoc woman, did not have a license,
though she has lived in the Lompoc for the last four years. The passenger, a
Lompoc man, said he was the owner of the car, and he knew the woman did not
have a license. Both driver and passenger were cited and the car was towed.
Sept. 3
Post Office vandalism
A Solvang Post Office
employee reported vandalism to some delivery trucks. He showed the deputy two
post office trucks that had their right-side windows broken out. There was a
large amount of glass both on the ground and inside the trucks as well. The
deputy couldn’t find evidence as to what was used to break the windows. The
post office employee said the trucks had been fine at the end of the day, Sept.
2. He estimated it would cost about $400 total to repair the windows.
Sept. 2
Reckless driving
While on patrol, a deputy
heard over the CHP scanner about a possible drunk driver on Highway 246 heading
from Lompoc toward Buellton. The deputy saw the described car and followed it.
He noted nothing unusual about the driving pattern while behind it, but the car
did have several vehicle violations, including no side mirrors, so the deputy
pulled it over. The deputy explained why he pulled the car over to the driver
and asked the Santa Barbara man if he was having difficulty keeping his vehicle
on the road. The driver said his car has a major alignment problem, which
causes the car to veer out of its lane of traffic. He said he knew driving all
over the road might lead to someone calling him in as a drunk driver. The
driver said he had a lot on his mind, that he just returned from a probation
appointment where he was drug-tested. He said his results were clean and he had
not been drinking or taking drugs, but he did consume four sodas. The deputy
then called the reporting party, a Lompoc woman, and asked her what she’d seen.
The woman said she witnessed the suspect vehicle strike the curb,
drive in the wrong lane of traffic, and cross the double line into oncoming
traffic lanes. She made a citizen’s arrest against the driver for reckless
driving. The suspect was cited and released.
Sept. 1
Warrant and drug use
While on patrol in the area
of the Chumash Casino, a deputy recognized a man driving by him as a suspect
from previous arrests. The deputy believed the man, from Santa Ynez, had a
misdemeanor warrant for his arrest and ran a records check. The suspect did
have a bookable warrant against him. When the suspect saw the deputy, he
yelled. The deputy noticed the suspect had a small child with him, and the suspect
said she was his daughter. The deputy asked if the man knew he had a warrant
against him, and the man said he forgot to go to court. The man appeared under
the influence of drugs, although he denied it. The child and the man’s car were
released to the child’s mother. Later, a drug test showed the man had THC and
cocaine in his system.
Aug. 29
Stolen MP3
A Santa Ynez woman and her
son were loading items into the woman’s car parked outside their house. The
woman noticed her son’s backpack and lunchbox, which had been on the car floor
since the previous night, were missing. She also noticed her MP3 player was
missing. A short time later, the woman saw the backpack and lunchbox on the
ground a short distance away on the street. Nothing had been taken from the
lunchbox or backpack. She estimated the MP3 player cost about $50.
Aug. 23
Further car vandalism in Santa Ynez
A San Diego man reported
vandalism to his car. He said the night before he’d been drinking at a
restaurant in Santa Ynez and decided to get a ride home and get his car in the
morning. He had a Jeep with no doors. On Aug. 23, he returned to get his car
and discovered several items were missing from it. Also, a large river rock the
man kept in his Jeep was used to smash the front windshield. It is noted in the
case file that several other vehicle vandalisms have been occurring in Santa Ynez.