escondido crime

Grand theft package, San Marcos: Sheriff’s Department goes viral video seeking thief

The Video UPS bandit must be stopped, according to San Diego County Sheriff’s investigators. A woman who allegedly stole two UPS packages worth $100 from a San Marcos resident fell afoul of the residence’s surveillance cameras. San Diego County Sheriff’s investigators took the unusual step Monday of releasing a kind of reality TV-meets-package-theft video as a means of bringing the alleged package snatcher to justice….


Puhleeze: DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint, Sheriff’s drones, county homicide rate

DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint deja vu March 11 When exactly one alleged DUI driver is stopped out of 1,393 vehicles at the last Escondido DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint, but you have a $309,726 grant to set up DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoints, what do you do? Obviously, set up another DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint. That’s going to be the case on Friday, March 11. The checkpoint will be set up…


Escondido Police Cadet orientation set

To be a cop or not be a cop, if that is the question, the Escondido Police Department provides some answers at 7 p.m. Monday, March 7. Escondido Police and Explorer Post 2600 holds an orientation night event at that time at EPD’s community room at 1163 N. Centre City Pkwy at that time for Police Cadet applicants. All applicants must be at least 16…


People behaving badly: Weekend edition

Man shot in each foot during 20-person brawl Hot foot doesn’t even begin to describe the scene just before midnight Sunday when a man got shot once in his left foot and once in his right during a late-night free-for-all. An estimated 20 people mixed it up around Rock Springs Road near West Lincoln Avenue, Escondido police Lt. Al Owens said. A suspect identified as…


Roosters seized and euthanized during Pauma Valley cockfighting sweep

Quail Drive was an unfortunately named location for the place where San Diego Sheriff’s swooped in on Sunday, Feb. 21 to break up an alleged cockfighting operation. The 18200 block of Quail Drive at Pauma Valley to be precise, and when the operation had ended, San Diego county Animal Services had seized nearly 100 rooster while euthanizing 183 birds. The property owner’s identity was not…


Escondido police DUI checkpoint yields 1 DUI arrest from nearly 1,400 vehicles

What if they held a DUI checkpoint and nobody got a DUI citation? Escondido police narrowly escaped that outcome Friday, Feb. 12. Police held a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint from 6 p.m. to midnight just outside police headquarters south of El Norte Parkway at the southbound Centre City Parkway lanes by Decatur Way. They arrested one driver on suspicion of DUI. Police said 1,393 vehicles drove through…


Throwing away the stolen car with the baby

A five-month-old girl was safe, but the suspect remained at large at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in a bizarre carjacking beginning at an apartment complex in the 1000 block of Rock Springs Road near Lincoln Avenue. An as-yet uncaught man took the Toyota Camry from the apartment complex around 3 p.m., according to Escondido police Lt. Ed Varso who said a neighbor reported the car sped…


Escondido DUI checkpoint through midnight

Planning on going by the Escondido Police Department building at 1100 N Centre City Parkway through midnight tonight? Better have your driver’s license on hand and maintain your sobriety. Police have a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint set up in the southbound lanes, south of El Norte Parkway. Somewhat controversial, yet highly in your faces, Escondido police had promised to set up “a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint at an…


Oops, they did it again to Chito’s Taco ATM

Oops, Chito’s Taco Shop ATM, with all due respect to Britney Spears, they did it again. Thieves for the second time in less than a month hit the mom-and-pop taco shop, just off Interstate 15 by Westfield North County mall, and this time they got what they sought — the shop’s ATM machine. When last we went Britney Spears at the Del Lago Boulevard eatery…


People Behaving Badly (January roundup)

Since last we met, Escondido-San Marcos-Valley Center has been the scene of some wild time, criminally speaking and otherwise. A bittersweet tale at best, tragedy and crime, some deadly and others of the head-scratching variety have been in the news. Here are some of the highlights and — shall we say — lowlights of the last few weeks. Skylar Tosic still missing Continuing to confound…