A carjacking witness wasted no time gawking at the crime Sunday morning in a California beach town — or worse, recording video to post on social media.
Instead, he decided to get directly involved.
What went down?
Police in Grover Beach — which is about 90 minutes northwest of Santa Barbara — responded to a call about a disturbance at the train station just before 6:30 a.m., KSBY-TV reported.
Sergio Deharo, a 26-year-old from Azusa, tried to carjack a woman's vehicle, the station said. The man pushed the woman away from her car, the Paso Robles Daily News said.
However, the woman fought back, trying everything from pushing Deharo away and even throwing hot coffee at him, KSBY noted.
But despite the battle the victim waged, authorities told KSBY Deharo was able to get into the driver’s seat and start the vehicle.
And that's when a witness who heard the noise stepped in to help, the station said.
What happened next?
Not only did the witness remove Deharo from the car, the Daily News said he pinned the would-be carjacker to the ground until police arrived.
Deharo — who was on parole at the time of the incident — was arrested and booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges of attempted carjacking, resisting arrest, and parole violation, KSBY reported in an earlier story. His bond was set at $150,000, the station added.
The station said it hasn't been able to track down the man who stopped the carjacking.
Anything else?
Jongkeun Han visits the train station about twice a week and told KSBY that news of the carjacking attempt puts him on edge since he sometimes arrives early in the morning and sometimes "very late at night."
Cherie Wais — owner of the Monarch Grove Winery, which is right next to the train station — added to KSBY that even though she's experienced only a handful of serious crimes over the last eight years, the attempted carjacking "doesn't really surprise me."
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