Public Pitches In to Help Police Track Down Theft Suspect : Santa Clarita: Deputies lead a foot search, interview merchants, use a helicopter and bus radio to locate a transient who fled K Mart.

Don’t mess with K mart.

At least not in Santa Clarita.

A 38-year-old transient who fled after stealing $200 worth of sundries from a Santa Clarita K mart was hunted down by five Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and concerned community members who used every means available to find him, including a helicopter.

Over the course of an hour, the deputies did a foot search for the man, surveyed merchants in the area, dispatched a helicopter to search for him and pulled over a public bus to use its radio to alert all bus drivers on a transit network.

But the most important clue may have come from the witness at a local doughnut shop who spotted the man boarding a bus.

“We really appreciate it,” Sheriff’s Lt. Barbara Persten said about the community participation. Indeed, the community helped put Jac Anderson behind bars at the sheriff’s station jail, where he was being held on suspicion of robbery on $30,000 bail.

Anderson allegedly entered the K mart at 23222 Valencia Blvd. about 3:40 p.m., Persten said. Security workers at the store saw Anderson pick up cigarettes, deodorant and other items and put them in his knapsack. Then, he slipped on a jacket off one of the racks.

When Anderson left the store without paying for the goods, security officers ran after him and confronted him.

But Anderson pulled a knife on guard Frank Rivas, 41, of Baldwin Park. Rivas backed off and Anderson fled.

That’s when the deputies entered the scene.

“They set up a containment and attempted to look for the individual,” Persten said. But to no avail.

When a foot search unearthed no robber, the deputies started asking employees at nearby businesses if they had seen a man matching Anderson’s description.

One merchant had seen Anderson making a phone call in his store after the robbery. But, more important was the person at the doughnut shop who saw Anderson getting onto a bus.

“The deputies stopped a bus in the Santa Clarita area, knowing they had radio capability,” Persten said. That bus driver broadcast an alert to other bus drivers, Persten said.

“One of the drivers radioed that he’d just dropped off someone fitting that description” about five miles from the K mart, Persten said.

From there, the search went to the air.

Deputies in the helicopter saw Anderson standing by a freeway on-ramp. Patrol officers were dispatched to the spot and arrested Anderson without incident, Persten said.