Several clients have had problems with their real estate professional from time to time, but if the charges against John Thomas Glenn are justified, the 23-year-old transient took things way too far.
Actually, the 55-year-old real estate saleslady Glenn is accused of putting in a chokehold and punching several times was not helping him buy or sell the Laguna Niguel home where the violence broke out Saturday afternoon. It was instead “a crime of opportunity,” according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
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Around 1 p.m. Saturday, the salesperson was going into the lock box on the front door of the home that's on the market in Laguna Niguel, where a man approached her, placed her in a chokehold and punched her several times causing her to begin losing consciousness, according to Lt. Jeff Hallock, the sheriff's spokesman.
The man fled the yard, got into a physical altercation with a neighbor who had heard the commotion and then ran away from the neighborhood, said Hallock, adding patrol deputies, bloodhounds and cops in the sky soon searched for the attacker. Over the next 24 hours, evidence gathered led investigators to believe Glenn was their man. He was arrested as he was walking out of a park near Crown Valley Parkway and Niguel Road Sunday.
“Following the arrest of Glenn, he indicated to investigators that he was under the influence of drugs and was attempting to gain entry into the home to commit a theft,” Hallock said.
Glenn was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail heading into arraignment Tuesday on charges of attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. But the investigation continues, and anyone with information is asked to contact the sheriff's department at 714.647.7000. Anonymous tips may be left with Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS) or occrimestoppers.org.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.