A Marine hero? Hardly

On Wednesday, after my story about the robbery appeared on the front page of the Daily Breeze and on this Web site, the reaction was what I expected. Police stepped up an investigation, blogs picked up the story, and readers reacted with anger that anyone would hurt an American hero just home from war. Some wrote to me wanting to give him money.

As the day progressed, police investigators said they were having difficulties with his story. It seemed inconsistent. He avoided their calls. They wondered why his dog tags - yes, he wore dog tags - were hanging from a gold chain.

At the same time, I began receiving calls from wonderful people wanting to offer him support. I called Camp Pendleton to ask if there was some place these good South Bay residents could send cards and money.

There was a problem. A Marine lieutenant told me he could find no one named Christopher Bajan at the base. He said he would keep checking

I had left a message at Bajan's apartment earlier in the day, but he never called me. I had believed he was on his way back to San Diego, but knowing that was no longer valid, I tried again.

It was about 4 p.m. and Bajan answered the telephone. When I questioned whether he really was a Marine, he at first he said he was a Marine, but had dropped out of the service.

Then like Frank Pembleton on "Homicide," I pressed him as if I had him in the "box." I wasn't happy. This is embarrassing. I wrote a story that was virtually untrue.

I felt my colleagues stop what they were doing and listen. A photographer said he realized something serious was happening when he heard me loudly say, "So that was all bullshit?"

Bajan broke like a twig and admitted his deception. He told me he was drunk when he talked to police. He told me he was drunk when he talked to me on the phone Monday night. I wrote the story Tuesday for Wednesday's paper. He had all day to call and tell me he had lied, but never did.

I'm still not sure why he made it up. I never really got a clear answer other than he was drunk.

If he really had been beaten on the head with a skateboard and robbed, why couldn't he just be a crime victim? Why would he tell police he was a Marine? And why would he perpetuate it with me? After all, he called me after I left a note on his door. He could have ignored the message.

I feel stupid that I agreed to keep his name out of the story. When he asked, I believed he was a Marine and a crime victim, and I had no problem protecting him.

I used his name in my new story. There's no reason to keep it secret. I kept my end of the deal. He didn't by lying.

Police are now investigating Bajan for filing a false police report and wasting their time. He wasted mine too.

He also wasted your time. I guess he never figured his lie would become a front-page news article. I guess he never figured TV stations would want to talk to him. I guess he never figured the "crawl" on a cable news channel would tell his story nationwide and its news anchors would want to interview him.

I know many people will say I should have called Camp Pendleton first and checked on him. But why? Why would anyone lie about watching friends die in a war?

I have been involved in covering about a dozen deaths of military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. I covered Hawthorne resident Daniel Cagle's funeral. I receive death notices every single day from the Department of Defense. Today, they were Pfc. Adam L. Marion, 26, of Mount Airy, N.C.; Sgt. Marcus C. Mathes, 26, of Zephyrhills, Fla.; and Sgt. Mark A. Stone, 22, of Buchanan Dam, Texas.

Every once in a while, there's a local name. They are the real heroes.

About a year ago, I wrote a story about a Navy seaman seriously injured when a drunk driver struck him not long after he returned from duty in Iraq. The Redondo Beach man escaped injury over there, but could not avoid being hurt on our freeways.

He told the truth. I never questioned whether he was really in the Navy. I didn't have to.

Now, I guess, I must be suspicious. I guess I have to call bases and double-check whether heroes really are heroes. What a shame. Imagine having to question a soldier or Marine who served his country about whether he's telling the truth. I apologize in advance to the young men and women who are risking their lives for the rest of us.

There is one good thing that came out of this. The public's response was fantastic.

I received calls from people who wanted to donate money to him. People are proud of the troops and what they are doing overseas, whether they agree with the Iraq war or not.

The emails kept on coming Wednesday evening.

There are plenty of good hearts out there. And it was wonderful to see.

Editors pulled the story off the Web site. A new story about all of this will appear on dailybreeze.com and in Thursday's newspaper.