Wachs, Sparkletts Man Deliver Suspect to Cops

NORTH HOLLYWOOD — Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, long known as a pro-police politician, took his fight against crime to a new level Thursday when he teamed up with a Sparkletts water deliveryman to help officers catch a thief.

Wachs was enjoying a cup of coffee just before 9 a.m. when he heard breaking glass and discovered a man trying to get into his Studio City home.

As Wachs dialed 911, the burglar made his way around the outside of the councilman’s home, breaking more windows in an effort to get inside.

Wachs, who said the man was “obsessed with getting inside the house,” grabbed a long kitchen knife and ran outside, clad only in a bathrobe and slippers.

That’s when he encountered Mohsen Lavizani, who was delivering a bottle of Sparkletts water to one of Wachs’ neighbors.

“At first, I thought he was coming at me,” said Lavizani, who has been a Sparkletts employee for 16 years.

But when he realized the councilman was in trouble, Lavizani, like Sparkletts deliverymen before him, snapped into action.

“I yelled, ‘Get in the truck!’ ” Lavizani said, obviously enjoying himself as he dramatically recounted the scene in front of a crush of TV cameras at a press conference at the North Hollywood police station.

Then he and Wachs watched as the burglar, his arms cut by glass and covered in blood, sped away in a white station wagon. Lavizani didn’t give chase. Knowing that the bad guy was headed toward a dead end, he put his big green water truck in gear and positioned it in the middle of the road to block the suspect upon his inevitable return.

And it almost worked. But the burglar managed to drive around the makeshift barricade.

Undaunted, this time Lavizani hit the gas.

“Mr. Wachs kept saying, ‘Get his license plate number,’ the Sparkletts man said. “I said, ‘Forget about the license plate number, we’re going to catch him.’ I felt like Rambo chasing this guy down in a Sparkletts truck.”

As they roared down Wrightwood Drive in hot pursuit of the station wagon, two LAPD squad cars were racing in their direction.

“I stuck my head out the window and yelled, ‘That’s the guy!’ ” Lavizani said. “And then this dummy makes another turn into a dead-end street.”

Minutes later, the 33-year-old suspect was taken into custody by three officers, among them a 22-year-old rookie who graduated from the Police Academy just two weeks ago.

“The adrenaline was pumping,” Officer Season Arellanes said of her first high-profile arrest. “Everything we learned in the academy was coming back.”

Police released few details about the suspect, whom Wachs said was “obviously spaced out on some kind of substance.”

LAPD Lt. Anthony Alba said the man, who had given police multiple aliases, will be charged with burglary.

Wachs commended Officer Arellanes, and Officers David Martinez and Michael Jensen for their “incredibly professional response to the incident.”

He also thanked Lavizani, whom he referred to as Moe.

“Too often . . . people are afraid to get involved,” Wachs said. “Well, Moe got involved.”

Moe, however, is not the first Sparkletts man to deliver more than the water.

In 1982, Sparkletts driver Jeffrey Fenn risked his life to wrestle a knife from a man who was attacking actress Theresa Saldana. Fenn later became a sheriff’s deputy.

Asked whether Wachs was a Sparkletts customer, Lavizani shot back: “He’s going to be.”

But Wachs was noncommittal.

Staff writers Jill Leovy and Solomon Moore contributed to this story.