Crime Voice

Huntington Beach, CA – A surreal pool in the middle of Pacific Coast Highway was no mirage Sunday evening, but what started out as a spontaneous beach crowd splashing through the scene of a traffic accident ultimately lead to three arrests and one man’s being tasered by police.

A black Ford Mustang careened through a fire hydrant at Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street about 6pm Sunday, releasing a torrent of water into the air, flooding the highway and attracting hundreds of nearby beach goers that proceeded to frolic and play in the resulting pool.

According to Lt. Mitchell O’Brien of the Huntington Beach Police Dept., some were even seen being dragged behind cars on body boards while holding onto car bumpers.

While attempting to clear the crowd, turn the water off and get the situation under control, police were stymied by some people on the scene that refused to cooperate.

“It was hard to get people to stop messing around,” said O’Brien. “They (police) were trying to get people away so they could shut the water off.”

With the highway blocked off and the crowd breaking up, emergency crews were ready to get to work, but one man, Juan Carlos Fuentes was apparently unable to resist the potential for more fun and failed to heed repeated police requests that he leave the area.

Eventually police sat Fuentes on the curb to await a citation but a short time later he allegedly made a run for it. Police quickly pursued, followed also by a large piece of the dispersing crowd.

Fuentes was tracked down and arrested minutes later on the bike path near Huntington Beach Lifeguard Headquarters. However, according to O’Brien, a group of people apparently associated with Fuentes faced off with police, protesting his arrest.

One of the men, Luis Jacobo Solarzano, reportedly approached from behind the officers and was tasered with a stun gun during the confrontation, falling to the ground. A photographer on the scene that has posted several photos of the incident online claimed the crowd yelled at police to stop the tasering.

Jose Ramon Macias continued protesting against police and eventually was arrested along with Fuentes and Solorzano.

All three men are from Anaheim, according to police, and were arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest and delaying a police investigation. They were all later released.

“A couple officers had some minor injuries, and the suspects had some minor injuries,” O’Brien said.

The actual crash which set the chain of events in motion caused no injuries and resulted in no arrests, O’Brien also noted.

Costa Mesa, CA (April 10, 2008) – A Costa Mesa man and woman have been arrested on several counts of fraud and theft after allegedly targeting local large chain retail stores with bogus checks and credit cards.
            Shirley Sager, 33, and Scott Raffa, 39, were arrested by Costa Mesa Police March 25 at the Radio Shack located at 2075 Newport Blvd. after Radio Shack employees reported recognizing Sager from previous incidents of fraud, said police.
            Upon arriving and searching Sager, police reported finding tools in her possession that could be used to create bogus credit cards.
            An additional search of Raffa and his vehicle resulted in his arrest after police turned up more tools that purportedly could be used to make fake credit cards. Raffa also possessed what police believed to be stolen property from a residential burglary in Anaheim that was used to make a fake check.
            According to Police, the pair is believed to have used the suspect cards to buy large ticket items such as video game consoles and computer equipment from large chain stores in Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Irvine, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Tustin. The number of retailers affected could not be released because the investigation is ongoing but several potential victims have been identified, said Costa Mesa Detective Eugene Kim.
            Police cautioned local retailers to be on the lookout for the phony cards which don’t work when scanned or swiped but are accepted when the card’s numbers are entered manually.
            The cards are described by police as not having raised numbers like typical credit cards, but instead being flat which makes them easier and cheaper to create. The cards also have a clear plastic layer that reveals a blank card when peeled back.
            Additionally, retailers should be wary of suspicious looking checks that customers cannot immediately verify, warned police.
            Sager and Raffa are suspected of using stolen identities to create the phony checks and cards. By demagnetizing the magnetic strips on the cards, the cards wouldn’t scan properly, forcing cashiers to enter the card information manually and resulting in a successful purchase. New names were also applied to the fake cards, according to police. 
              Specific charges against Sager include suspicion of burglary, identity theft, credit card fraud and giving false identification to police. Raffa is suspected of burglary, identity theft, credit card fraud and check fraud.