For Police Pursuing Burglary Suspects, It’s Catch as Catch Can

Outdistanced as they ran after two youthful burglary suspects, a pair of huffing police officers had to change their tactics Thursday evening to keep up with the alleged thieves.

One hitched a ride with some elderly women. The other commandeered a bicycle. Minutes later, the two suspects were under arrest.

“I am so happy things turned out like it did,” said Police Sgt. Nelda Gonzalez. “It couldn’t have gone down any better.”

Christopher Michael Botts, 21, and Michael Sinclair Botts, 18, both former track team members at San Clemente High School, were being held in the city jail on charges that they stole a camcorder and a coin collection, Gonzalez said.

They were being held on $25,000 bail each, Gonzalez said, and face arraignment in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel on Monday.

Gonzalez said that at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Mary Ann Dolphin returned to her Via Montecito home and discovered that the garage door was ajar. When she walked into the house, she saw that several rooms had been ransacked, and she heard noises.

Dolphin immediately ran from the house to a neighbor’s home, where she dialed 911.

Police Officers Kevin O’Brien and Andy Ferguson arrived at the residence first. Walking around to the back of the house, they came face to face with two men who were walking through the rear sliding-glass window, goods in hand.

Police Sgt. Richard Corder, Officer Nancy Bean and Gonzalez arrived at the scene in separate squad cars.

O’Brien ordered the two men to stop, but they threw the merchandise into some bushes, jumped a fence and ran down a hillside, disappearing from view behind some houses, Gonzalez said.

A few minutes later, the two suspects were spotted on a street below, still running.

While Bean jumped into a squad car to try to head off the two men, O’Brien, Corder and Ferguson began running to catch up with the suspects. Gonzalez followed in a car.

While O’Brien directed the foot chase by hand-held radio, Corder stopped a car with two elderly women inside and asked them to give him a lift, Gonzalez said.

He sat in the back seat of the car, telling the women where to turn and which way to go. The women “were very cooperative and professional,” Gonzalez said.

Meanwhile, Ferguson, also apparently tired from the foot chase up and down the winding streets of north San Clemente, stopped a bicyclist.

“He said, ‘I’m trying to catch up to two burglary suspects, and I really need to use your bike,’ ” Gonzalez said. “The citizen willingly gave Officer Ferguson the bike.”

Ferguson, now mobile, was still about half a mile behind the suspects when he saw them jump a wall at a residence, Gonzalez said.

But Bean was there waiting and ordered them to stop. One of the suspects halted in his tracks, but the other lunged at Bean. The officer quickly took a step back and kicked him away from her, Gonzalez said.

As Bean and the suspect grappled, Corder arrived at the scene in the commandeered car, jumped over the wall and grabbed the suspect. Locked in a wrestling match, the two fell down a small incline, and Corder broke a finger before Gonzalez and the others were able to pull the suspect off and handcuff him.

After the arrest, a bystander offered to take Ferguson back to the stranded bicyclist, Gonzalez said.

In all the rush and confusion of the chase, Gonzalez said, the officers forgot to get the names of the two elderly women, the bicyclist and the man who drove Ferguson back with the borrowed bike.

“What we are trying to stress here is that without the citizens getting involved and helping us, we wouldn’t have been able to help them,” Gonzalez said. The department wants the residents who helped police to call the station so they can be recognized for their participation in the arrest, she said.

“It was quite a caper,” said Gonzalez, who just transferred back to patrol duty from a long stint in support services. “I’ve really missed the excitement.”