Confirmation of a wild hunch
Yesterday I speculated that Ruben Smith, the Azusa man who led police on a wild chase across the San Gabriel Valley, was a pool man.
Guess what? Ruben Smith is a pool man.
That stuff in the back of his truck is chemicals and tools used to clean pools.
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| Frank Girardot, Metro Editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers, brings you behind the yellow tape with takes on true crime, cold cases and more. This is also your forum to discuss crime, its impact on your neighborhood and how we cover it. Have any questions or tips? You can leave a comment here or e-mail Frank. |
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Brian Day is the crime reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper group. E-mail Brian. |
hi 5!
Out of curiousity, the picture on the front of the Tribune and Star-News websites appears to be of the I-10 eastbound carpool lane, at Del Mar (in San Gabriel). But there's no way to take a picture from there unless you're standing on the shoulder of the carpool lane exit. Did you actually have a photographer standing there? Seems kinda dangerous, particularly if the pool man decided to try to get off the freeway there.
Ah, I see further down on your blog, you've got another shot, of the car after it's gone past the camera. Yep, definitely the Del Mar exit. Is the camera hanging over the lane on the end of a pole, or is that from a CalTrans camera mounted over the freeway?
Here's what I know. Raul Roa, the photographer, was definitely on the bridge and took the shot, it's not a CalTrans deal. But how he got it, I'm not exactly sure. He's capable of some pretty amazing freeway photography.
Earlier this year, Raul and I went to an an overturned truck on the eastbound 10 freeway just past the 605. he knew how to zip through the neighborhood there so that we were able to get up to the roadside and then onto the freeway while the CHP investigated.
It was pretty impressive.
BTW, Todd if that was you asking about Rice Elementary. Sorry I never got back to you. I have no idea what happened there that day.
Yeah, it was me asking about Rice. Didn't hear if the guy was ever caught on that one.
I usually ride the bus that exits at Del Mar, and never really noticed that there's a pedestrian bridge, just a bit west of the carpool exit. So I suppose your photog must have taken it from there.
He must have gotten a hunch that the guy was going to take the I-10 eastbound some time before the driver actually got on that freeway from the 710. Otherwise, there's no way he'd have had time to park "in the middle of nowhere" and make the run up the pedestrian bridge and still have time to set up for his shots. Good job!
All I did was hustle down the 10 FWY. westbound when the pool guy was on the 710 and heading east on the 10 again. Pulled off at New Ave., headed a bit east parallel to the frwy on the north side, accessed the PEDESTRIAN OVERCROSSING WEST OF DEL MAR, ran up the ramp, pulled a right thigh muscle, crawled th erest of the ramp while carrying gear, got to the middle of the overcrossing right smack over the car pool lane, shot through small-holed wire fencing, and two minutes later, the truck drove by.. Simple as that.. .No poles hanging over the lanes, no dangerous shoulder stopping, no caltrans cameras, just hard-core, old school street knowledge of offramps, overcrossings and lots of LUCK! You gotta know where you're going if you're gonna get there in time.
Your pal, me (Roa)
ROFLOL! Thanks for the hustle, Roa.
As I implied in my last post, once I figured out where you took the picture from, I figured that was a pretty hard run involved to get to the middle of the pedestrian bridge before the pool guy drove by.