San Juan Teen Reflects on His Luck

A San Juan Capistrano teenager rescued from a ravine over the weekend reflected Monday on how fortunate he was, and his parents gave thanks the mishap did not end tragically.

“The way I look at it, there was somebody out there looking out for Shaun,” said Gary Gray, whose son slid 80 feet down a steep slope Saturday night and stopped just short of going off a cliff.

“Most 18-year-olds feel they’re rather invincible,” he said. “Shaun, I think, got a rude awakening.”

The Grays did not learn until later how grave the situation might have been. Shaun Gray’s rescuer turned out to be a family friend, firefighter-paramedic Tim Perkins. He was the first on the scene, rappelling down the slippery hillside to secure Gray with a harness so he could be pulled up.

Gray, 18, made light of the incident at the time, calling after his rescue to tell his parents he “had a tumble down a hill,” his father said. He told his mother, Janet, that he was fine but scratched up. They learned Sunday from Perkins that Gray had been about 40 feet from a 150- to 200-foot drop.

“Not only was it a tough spot, but it was raining and it was cold,” Perkins said. “I don’t even know if he realizes how lucky he is.”

On Sunday, the family made a trek to the site and reconstructed the accident.

Gray, a senior at Dana Hills High School, had gone to meet five friends in Laguna Niguel and was hiking along unfamiliar ground near Talavera Drive at 7 p.m. when he saw an opening between two fences. He walked through, thinking it was a path, and fell. He tried to climb the hill but kept sliding back. He managed to steady himself by planting one foot on a rock and grabbing a tree root. Then he began yelling into the darkness.

His friends heard his cries, and one ran to a guard shack at a nearby gated community to call 911. The other four tried to comfort him until a rescue team could get there and a helicopter could light up the heavily wooded slope.

Recalling his ordeal, Gray said Monday, “I don’t think anyone’s New Year’s story can beat mine.

“You don’t really appreciate everything you have until it’s almost taken away. Forty feet away, and I would have dropped 12 stories. What was weird was, I managed to cope with it throughout the day. Then it hit me. It blew my mind. I actually couldn’t sleep last night.”