MISSION VIEJO : Man Who Hijacked News Truck Sought

The Sheriff’s Department is looking for a man who commandeered a Times newspaper deliveryman’s pickup truck at gunpoint early Thursday morning, driving the victim to Rancho Santa Margarita before escaping, authorities said.

The victim, Nam Le, was not harmed, sheriff’s deputies and Times security personnel said.

The incident began as Le was filling a news rack at Ruby’s Restaurant on Vista del Lago at about 5 a.m., according to a report by Bud Collyer, a Times security officer.

As Le was returning to his truck, he noticed a man sitting in the cab. The man appeared to be about 18 or 19 years old, had medium-length dark hair and smelled of liquor, Collyer said.

The man got out and demanded Le’s keys to the truck, Collyer said. When Le refused, the man pulled out handcuffs and struck Le on the hand, jarring the keys loose.

As Le bent down to pick up the keys, the man pulled out a yellow-handled, .38-caliber revolver and told Le, “You’re going to take me to my friend’s place or you’re dead,” Collyer said in his report.

The man then took the keys, forced Le into the passenger side of the pickup and drove at high speed to nearby Rancho Santa Margarita, Collyer said. He stopped near the intersection of Plano Trabuco and Santa Margarita Parkway and turned the truck over to Le before running away.

Le was not robbed, Sheriff’s Sgt. Richard R. Paddock said.

“Basically, what he (the gunman) got was a free ride,” Paddock said, adding that the Sheriff’s Department is investigating.