Suitor Jailed Before Delivering Message With Suicide Bullet

A spurned suitor who apparently intended to kill himself with a bullet wrapped in a fortune cookie message reading “You will be successful in love” was arrested before he could carry out his threat, authorities said Friday.

“It was like he wanted to leave a message behind after his suicide or whatever it was he was contemplating,” Los Angeles Police Detective Bud Mehringer said.

Dan Cristea, a 35-year-old Romanian national, was jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail after being charged Friday with stealing a gun, which he apparently intended to use on himself. He pleaded not guilty in Van Nuys Municipal Court to one count of robbery.

Mehringer said police began unraveling the chain of events involving Cristea after his arrest Wednesday outside the home of a 37-year-old Reseda woman, also a Romanian national.

The woman told police she had rebuffed Cristea’s advances, Mehringer said. She said she had a court order restraining Cristea from approaching her but said he had called her and threatened to kill himself in front of her.

“He said he had stolen a gun from a shop and he was going to use it on himself,” Mehringer said.

Alarmed, the woman called police, who escorted her home and found Cristea walking on the sidewalk in front of the house, Mehringer said.

The officers took Cristea into custody and searched the car in which he had been living. Police found two guns, including one containing a single bullet with the fortune cookie message wrapped around it, Mehringer said.

The .32-caliber automatic handgun still had a store inventory tag on it, which police traced to Turner’s Outdoorsman, a sporting goods store in Reseda. Investigators determined the gun had been stolen in August when Cristea allegedly came into the shop, asked to see the weapon and then loaded it with a bullet he had brought with him, according to Mehringer.

“He told the store clerk, ‘This gun is now loaded and I am taking it with me,’ ” Mehringer said.

Mehringer said an investigation of Cristea, who may be in the country illegally, is continuing and additional charges may be filed against him.