The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has deployed new proactive efforts to reverse the increase in drug trafficking that has been experienced within the four county-run jail facilities in Orange County over the last eight years.
Independence Day and its festivities are right around the corner! While fireworks are a customary part of the celebration, a lack of safety when using them could lead to serious injury. In 2018 between June 22 and July 22, there were 5,600 fireworks-related injuries that resulted in emergency room visits:
• 500 were due to sparklers
• 200 were due to bottle rockets
• 1,000 were due to firecrackers (at least 13 percent of the firecrackers used were illegal)
• Hands and fingers were the most common injuries
Because 36 percent of these injuries were suffered by children under the age of 15, it is vital to use extreme caution when fireworks are in use. Many times these packages look like toys so it is important to keep these out of children’s reach.
To reduce the possibility of injury make sure:
• The fireworks purchased follow your city’s regulations
• There is a water bucket or garden hose nearby while using fireworks
• Water is poured over the fireworks after they go out
• Keep fireworks away from children
Several Orange County cities will be offering on July 4th as well as firework displays at night. Be sure to check your city’s schedule for more information about these parades and for information about what types of fireworks are legal in your city.
Two people were arrested in the early morning hours of Monday, June 24, after an attempted burglary at a jewelry store in Yorba Linda. The attempted burglary procedures were very similar to recent jewelry store burglaries in other South County cities.
On Sunday, June 23, a jewelry store owner in Yorba Linda responded to his store to find the power to the business had been disabled. Recognizing that similar tactics were used in previous jewelry store burglaries in South County, the store owner contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Yorba Linda Police Services investigators set up surveillance of the business that evening. At approximately 2 a.m., multiple subjects gained entry to the business through the front door. Deputies detained two subjects at the store, and two fled in a vehicle. Deputies followed the vehicle to the point where the suspects abandoned it and the two were not located during a perimeter search.
The two suspects detained at the scene, Andres Ismitt Hidalgo Duarte, 29, and Almendra Yeliann Marchant Torres, 22, who had Chilean ID, were arrested and booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of felony burglary and criminal conspiracy. They are ineligible for bail and are expected to be arraigned on June 25.
Yorba Linda investigators will be working to confirm if these are connected to the two previous jewelry store burglaries.
A married couple who had been living out of a car for months was placed into housing thanks to help from a dedicated OCSD team tasked with helping the homeless.
Lake Forest Homeless Liaison Officer Deputy Castro, along with OCSD’s South Homeless Outreach Team, came to know Jacob and his wife Jordan in his work with the homeless in the city. Over many months, Deputy Castro offered services from housing placement to job hunting.
“They’re very young – maybe in their early 20s -- and I remember I just kept telling them, ‘we have to help get you somewhere better,’” Castro said.
Deputy Castro said he didn’t know much of their backstory except the two recently were married and had a falling out with family. The couple couldn’t make ends meet and resorted to living in their vehicle and parking it in different locations around the city.
The couple would cycle from one beat-up vehicle to the next, calling each dilapidated car home until it broke down. It was a lifestyle that generated many calls for service from concerned residents.
On multiple occasions, Deputy Castro worked with the pair in an attempt to get them off the streets, but just when progress seemed imminent, plans would fall through or the couple wouldn’t show for a required meeting to move things forward.
“I stayed very patient,” Castro said. “We just kept working and trying to get them help.”
Castro stayed hopeful that the couple would one day take him up on his outreach efforts.
Recently, Castro learned the months of work between him and the Homeless Outreach Team paid off. Their vehicle, which sat immobile on a Lake Forest street, had a note scribbled on the windows in paint marker:
“Tow it. I want to thank Castro for believing in us. Thanks for everything. We got a place.”
“I was very humbled and happy for them,” Castro said. “It’s one of those moments where you see the outcome of all the work we put in. We always want to do outreach before we do enforcement and they are a prime example of that.”
