Sharp Eyes Make a Hero : Store Owner Points Police to Hit-Run Suspect

Keith Candler had no idea when he passed a motorcycle accident scene in Huntington Beach that police would soon be calling him a hero.

But until Candler came along early Friday morning on his way to work, police had few clues about the hit-and-run accident that killed motorcyclist Jerry Thomas Sweet, 27, of Culver City near the Newland Street overpass of the San Diego Freeway.

Candler, 34, was driving to the 7-Eleven store he owns to relieve his graveyard clerk at 12:45 a.m. when he drove past the accident scene. Police were there, but whoever hit Sweet had disappeared.

A short while later at his store, at Golden West Street and McFadden Avenue, Candler watched as a blue car pulled in, “and the driver can’t quite make it in the parking stall right,” he remembered.

‘Scratch Marks’ on Hood of Suspect’s Car

“It also had scratch marks all up on the hood, and I said to myself, ‘This looks just a little too suspicious.’ ”

If he called police, he thought, they might laugh.

“They would have thought that I’ve watched too many cop movies on TV, because here I was calling about a car that dripped water and looked like it had just struck a telephone pole,” Candler said.

Still, Candler called, after the man had entered the store, gotten change for a dollar, walked back out and sat in his car. Then the suspect ran off, perhaps having overheard other customers outside talking about the call to police, the owner said.

By the time California Highway Patrol officers and Huntington Beach police responded, the suspect was gone, CHP spokeswoman Leslie Hill said.

But the car was the right color. Officers knew the hit-and-run car was blue because blue paint chips were found on Sweet’s rear fender, Hill said.

At the store, officers impounded the car and checked the license plate, Hill said. They also viewed a videotape of the suspect that had been filmed by the store’s security camera.

The CHP officers “could see everything, even how this guy parked his car and walked in,” she said.

Police determined from the videotape that they were looking for Theodore Ramond Paulsen, 25, in Huntington Beach. But a former roommate in that city told them that Paulsen had moved to Westminster and that “he didn’t know the address,” Hill said.

‘Try and Remember’ Suspect’s Address

“We gave him a Thomas Brothers map book and told him to try and remember,” Hill said.

The former roommate produced enough information that officers knocked on a door in the 6000 block of Chippewa Drive in Westminster--and arrested Paulsen on suspicion of manslaughter, felony hit-and-run and drunk driving.

Police said Sweet’s motorcycle had been struck from behind, causing him to fall beneath the car, which dragged him 100 feet, Hill said. He died at the scene.

Paulsen, a meat cutter for a grocery chain, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.13, Hill said. An blood-alcohol content of 0.10 makes it illegal to drive in California.

While the CHP and police praised Candler’s help, the store owner downplayed his role.

“Looking at that motorcyclist was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I was glad to help. . . . I’m no hero.”

Paulsen’s bail was set at $150,000.