Community Service Stalwart Now to Serve Time : Crime: Fallbrook volunteer Victor Henry Salgado is sentenced to five years in prison for armed robberies he says he pulled to aid his children and grandchildren.

He was an unsung hero of community service: crisis volunteer for teen-agers contemplating suicide; volunteer counselor at Fallbrook High School; director of the Fallbrook Boys and Girls Club; director of the Fallbrook Community Services District; member of former President Jimmy Carter’s Commission for the Handicapped. And, in 1977-78, he was a member of the San Diego County Grand Jury.

Now he’s headed to state prison for armed robbery, something he said he did to help his poor children and grandchildren, kids who needed glasses and visits to the dentist.

Victor Henry Salgado received the lightest possible sentence in court this week, a five-year term after pleading guilty to two armed robberies. Because of good-time credits, he may be out of prison in about 20 months. But, because he used a gun, he was not eligible for probation.

“This is something I am not proud of,” Salgado wrote in court documents. “I felt I was at loose ends.”

He said he was the only male figure in the lives of his children and grandchildren, and wanted to do all he could for them. And he admitted he took the wrong path.

Earlier this year, he robbed a book store in Temecula and three golf pro shops in North County--Carmel Highland Resort in Rancho Penasquitos, Castle Creek Country Club in Valley Center and El Camino Country Club in Oceanside.

Altogether, he snagged $5,300. For the golf shop jobs, he’d pick a quiet Saturday afternoon, when all the golfers were on the course, in the cocktail lounge or packing up their clubs in their cars, and the pro shops were all but empty--and their cash registers brimming with money from the day’s business.

He’d approach the lone pro shop clerk, show his gun--unloaded, he would say later--take the money and tape his victim so he would have enough time to escape--on crutches.

Salgado’s lower legs are paralyzed.

Crime Stoppers asked for public help in solving the four crimes, described the suspect’s car and identified the suspect as on crutches.

A friend of Salgado’s blanched. Salgado uses crutches. He drove the same kind of car. And he knows golf course pro shops, since he once worked at a golf course snack shop.

He called in his tip.

Salgado was arrested, identified in a police lineup and pleaded guilty to two of the four armed robberies in a plea bargain with the district attorney’s office.

The prosecutor wanted Salgado sentenced to nine years, four months--the same term recommended by the San Diego County Probation Department.

“One of the primary goals of sentencing is punishment,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Garrett Randall. “When you look at the crimes he committed and the sentence he received, and compare it to others, he was treated lightly.

“You might be more understanding for somebody who did it just once, out of desperation. Then they reflect on it, think about it and decide not to do it again.

“But the facts in this case are that he made a conscious decision to repeat the crime three times.”

Vista Superior Court Judge Ronald Prager acknowledged his own sympathy when he sentenced Salgado on Thursday.

The judge said that, given Salgado’s service to the community, the robberies should be considered something akin to a single, uncharacteristic outburst born out of frustration for his loved ones who needed money. This was no string of robberies by some street-wise, hardened career criminal, the judge suggested.

Prager noted that Salgado “acted out of a desire to provide for himself and for family members,” and said Salgado was unlikely to commit such crimes again.

Indeed, he’s hardly the stereotype of a stickup thug to begin with. He’s 53, has diabetes and bursitis. He’s on crutches. And he’s devoted years to the community.

More than a dozen friends and supporters showed up in court on Salgado’s behalf, telling of a man who was selfless toward others and who would be proud of his accomplishments, even after he was crippled by a spinal aneurysm in 1967.

“He’s very embarrassed about the whole situation,” said his attorney, public defender Jeff Martin.