Crime Time: A Weekly Round-Up of OC Police Calls

MONDAY, JUNE 1

Shroomin' in Lagoonan: Laguna Beach Police arrested three people at a La Mirada Street property for alleged possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms, heroin, Xanax, Levitra, Alprazolam and “numerous other unknown pills.” Steven Christopher Aiello, 27, of Mission Viejo; Joseph Donovan Black, 26, of Laguna Beach; and Cable Jonathan Jansen, 19, of Aliso Viejo, were arrested on suspicion of trespassing and various drug offenses. Upon his arrival there, David Marengo, 20, of Aliso Viejo, was arrested for alleged possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. Police were unsure if the confiscated drugs were for personal use or distribution. All suspects were released on their own recognizance except Black, who was taken to Orange County Jail. The property was two blocks away from a quiet bluff neighborhood where police found a 342-plant indoor marijuana farm last month.

In your best Jack Bauer voice: “Drop your weapon!”: Santa Ana Police received a call around 12:30 p.m. from the son of a man who had apparently been drinking and was distraught over a recent DUI arrest. During their ensuing standoff with 41-year-old Stephen Thomas Faust at the Continental Mobile Home Park in the 2800 block of West First Street, Faust apparently pointed a semi-automatic weapon at a hostage negotiator and threatened to kill him. Bad move. A SWAT sharpshooter fired two rounds, with one bullet striking Faust in the upper body before the suspect dropped his weapon and was apprehended. He was taken to a hospital and expected to recover.
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TUESDAY, JUNE 2

Clue No. 1 Something is Awry: There is No Snow in the Mountains:
One man in a ski mask held a weapon. A second in a ski mask acted as if
he had one. And, according to the 10:50 a.m. Orange County Sheriff's
Department call, both men forced an employee at the Citizens Business
Bank at 25255 Cabot Road, Laguna Hills, into a back room and left with
an undisclosed amount of cash. They were spotted driving away in a
four-door gray Buick that they abandoned at a nearby fast-food
restaurant–with the engine still running–before jumping into either a
champagne- or burgundy-colored Ford Explorer or Mercury SUV driven by a
woman.

Gooooooooooal! Grooooooooooss! David Hernandez, a 28-year-old
soccer coach from Anaheim, was arrested at a park around 11:30 a.m. for
allegedly having sex with an underage girl he was privately coaching in
Mission Viejo. Hernandez has been coaching teams at Mission Viejo
Soccer Club for about four years, and investigators were looking into
the possibility of additional victims. The club's girls are ages 9 to 17. The suspect claims the sex was consensual. Tell it to the judge.

You Probably Read, Saw, Heard, Twittered, Had This Implanted in Your Brain Somewhere Else Already:
Octomom Nadya Suleman was pulled over and ticketed in La Habra for
supposedly talking on her cell phone while driving some of her 147 kids.
 
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3

Just When You Leece Expect It: The son of Costa Mesa's Mayor
Pro-Tem Wendy Leece was arrested in the early morning hours after an
argument with his girlfriend escalated into him allegedly battering her
and her 9-year-old son around. Stephen Leece, 28, apparently roughed up
the woman after she returned from a night of partying with her
girlfriends. During the 20-minute struggle, the victim's 9-year-old son
who had heard the commotion from his bedroom tried to intervene, but
Leece reportedly pushed him away. The man was held on suspicion of felony
charges of causing corporal injury to a cohabitant.

Those Must Be Some Mighty Fine Socks: At 12:34 p.m., Anaheim
police received a call from the Ralphs supermarket at 4033 Ball Road
that a man who had shoplifted a 12-pack of socks pointed a silver
handgun at employees before fleeing west on a bicycle into Los Angeles
County. About eight minutes later, two plainclothes Cypress detectives
saw a man matching the description riding a bicycle near Norwalk
Boulevard and 222nd Street in Hawaiian Gardens. He fled first on the
bike, then abandoned it and began running before holing himself inside
a home that was being remodeled. After about an hour of drama, Michael
Singleterry, 24, emerged and surrendered to SWAT deputies from Los
Angeles County. He was booked on suspicion of armed robbery, resisting
arrest, a felon in possession of a handgun and for a parole hold. The
socks remain at large.

THURSDAY, JUNE 4

Timber! Vandals chopped down a large magnolia tree that had
stood in San Clemente High School's quad area since the campus opened
in 1964. Video surveillance captured the 2 a.m. killing, which involved
several males and an ax. Only a stump was left. Not counting the stumps that cut the tree down, of course.

FRIDAY, JUNE 5

Mark My Words: It'll Happen in 2010, Too: Morning classes at Sunny Hills
High School in Fullerton were evacuated after someone made a bomb
threat. Crack police investigators believe it was part of a senior
prank. Why? Because seniors did the same thing last year.

SATURDAY, JUNE 6

Cleaned Them Out: The “Clean-cut Bandit” strikes again. So named
because of his clean-shaven appearance, the bank robber who pulled a
May 20 heist in Garden Grove is suspected of hitting two Fullerton
banks: the Chase Bank at 1235 N. Harbor Blvd. on June 4 and the Bank of
America at 401 N. Harbor Blvd. at 2 this afternoon. It was then a man
handed a note to the teller demanding cash, took hit loot and shot out
the door before a witness saw someone running with smoke swirling from
a dye pack that had exploded. He is described as an Asian male,
5-foot-8, 170 pounds, possibly sporting a mustache and wearing a dark
shirt and dark pants. And a new dye job.

SUNDAY, JUNE 7

Eat (and Rob) Fresh: A man in his mid-30s walked into the the
Quan Thanh sandwich shop in the 100 block of South Harbor Boulevard
near West First Street in Santa Ana around 9 a.m. and pointed a small
handgun at the clerk. That was apparently not a demand for extra
pickles but cash, which the clerk handed over before the robber ran
away to the northwest, undoubtedly in the direction of a Subway. Hey, a man's gotta eat.

MONDAY, JUNE 8

Ring-Ring-Ring: Motorists began 911ing around 3 a.m. when a man
was seen driving a dark-colored Nissan northbound on the southbound 5
freeway near Avenida Vacquero in San Clemente. He then pulled over,
left the car and began running on the freeway before jumping over a
divider and running into a neighborhood. That produced more calls to
the Highway Patrol and the Sheriff's Department from alarmed neighbors.
A search of the San Juan Capistrano home listed as the address of the
registered owner of the Nissan turned up nothing, but Andrew Maurice
Vangelder, 20, of Mission Viejo, was finally arrested on suspicion of
drunken driving around 4:30 a.m. when deputies found him walking along
Via Cascadita.

Oh, It's You Again: A woman was taken to Mission Hospital with severe head trauma early this morning after being assaulted by a man in the Gables community on Oldspire
Drive in Ladera Ranch. That's not the weird part. Her attacker probably tried to
break into her home Sunday night before pummeling her near a cluster of mailboxes. That's not the weird part.
He'd just been released on bail Saturday night. That's not the weird
part. What's weird is Mark Alan Jarosik, 44, who is now being held without bail at Orange County Jail
on suspicion of attempted murder, was awaiting a hearing on his attack two weeks earlier on the same woman, his ex-girlfriend. [Writer's note: This item originally gave the incorrect identity of
the victim, and that has been removed. OC Weekly apologizes for the
error.]