By Mike Madriaga On January 28, before 10 am, the Coronado Police Department noticed their bait bike moving away from where it was initially locked. So they sent an officer down the Silver Strand near Leyte Road, north of the Coronado Cays, and the officer saw a 49-year-old man riding the bait bicycle heading northbound […]
By Mike Madriaga “On New Year’s morning, UFCW Local 135 union member Martin Andara was senselessly killed after being pushed into an oncoming train at the trolley station in Old Town San Diego,” reads the union’s January 7 online post. “Martin worked at Ralphs 207 in Pacific Beach and was a member of our union […]
By Mike Madriaga On June 2, the San Diego Police Department Facebooked a photo of a stolen red moped. “A community member notified us of a man parking a moped and then running away, which [the man who reported it] thought was suspicious,” SDPD captioned the photo in part. “After tracking down the registered owner, […]
By Mike Madriaga “In 2020, 243 stolen bikes were reported to us, and ten were recovered,” he continued, “then, in 2021, 332 stolen bikes were reported to us, and it’s only October; 14 were reported recovered. These are our internal numbers showing results for a 25-mile radius around San Diego.” The nonprofit organization’s website and […]
By Mike Madriaga On September 16, a person who wore a dark-colored hoodie and carried a red-colored gas container walked up to Mervynn Fernandez’s 1990 Nissan 240SX near the Paradise Valley neighborhood on Dillard Street. “He poured gas on it and lit it on fire at 2:50 a.m.,” Fernandez said to me on September 26. […]
By Mike Madriaga “I found your third suspect,” said Elias Rodriguez from the San Diego Police Department. “There’s a patrol unit parked on the [805] freeway with the flashers on. He’s between you and Franklin, midway up the hill hiding in the treeline.” Rodriguez, a tactical flight officer, was about 1386 feet above the Imperial […]
By Mike Madriaga Over a week ago, a man broke into a private train car, which former President John F. Kennedy allegedly traveled in. It was parked at the Santa Fe Depot train station. “We attempted to speak to him, but he refused and went back into the railroad car,” posted the San Diego Police […]
By: Mike Madriaga On February 3, a neighbor’s camera caught Brody wandering away from his San Lorenzo, Northern California home. The next day and 500-plus miles south, Brody mysteriously crossed into Tijuana. Brody is a four-year-old French bulldog, the same breed as Lady Gaga’s two pets, the ones that were recently “dognapped.” For two weeks, […]
By Mike Madriaga On the morning of April 23, Jasmine King and her family’s flatbed trailer was stolen from the front of their Escondido home. “People are getting desperate,” she said to me on May 9, “there’s been a recent problem with off-road [vehicle] theft ….” Fortunately for King, 36, their 1988 Big Tex trailer […]
By Mike Madriaga When Lando Martinez returned to his south San Diego home on January 20, his 1995 Honda Del Sol was missing. “I parked the car in front of our new house on the 16th,” he said, “and we flew out to Texas to visit family. When we came back the following Monday, I […]
By Mike Madriaga Over 200 people attended the “peace gathering” at the Church’s Chicken parking lot in Otay Mesa on November 16. The gathering was in honor of the restaurant’s three employees — Mario Rojas, Humberto Ruiz and Maribel Ibañez — who were shot on Nov. 6. Ibañez, 28, was killed in the shooting, and […]
I didn’t think I was ever going to see my $6000 bike again,” said Scott S. “But I did, thanks to the law enforcement agencies collaborating, and to ‘Bob’ for initially messaging me.” At 2 am on September 29, Scott, who resides in both Coronado and Scottsdale, Arizona, noticed the text messages on his phone. […]
By Mike Madriaga “I see about one of these cars with stolen catalytic converters a week, go through my repair shop in Rancho Bernardo,” said Justin Goen. “It pisses me off and I think recyclers need to figure something out to help stop this.” Recyclers pay good money for certain catalytic converters because of the […]
About two weeks ago I was driving eastbound on University Avenue in Cherokee Point. I noticed two teens riding Bird scooters on the sidewalk traveling in the same direction and as they passed Noelia’s Party Boutique by 37th, one teen punched the hanging piñatas sending one crashing down. “They knock down my piñatas once a […]
On December 10, Marisol Castillo’s Christmas gift package was swiped from the porch of her Imperial Beach home; this was her last straw. “We’ve had this situation happen way too many times,” she said on a December 13 interview, “I can’t even count them. My husband Waylon runs an Amazon business so we always have […]