AnonymousUpdate by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
At 11:41, deputies responsed to the 4500-blk of Veija for a suspect who stole a handsaw & was acting bizarre. Patrol, K9 & County Air Support searched for the suspect. They found the stolen saw at noon & continued to search the area, asking residents to briefly shelter in place.
By edhat readers
1:34 p.m. A helicopter has been circling for about 10 minutes repeatedly over the More Mesa area. No idea why?
1:35 p.m.: Sheriff sent message for certain streets in Hope Ranch to shelter in place! … Helicopter continues to circle overhead
1:36 p.m.: Sheriff’s Office sent out this message, “The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department is requesting residence on the 4600 blocks of Via Vistosa, Via Cayente, and Via Carretas shelter in place while we search for a suspect.”
1:40 p.m. UPDATE from Sheriff: “The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department is done with operation. Shelter in place has been cancelled. Thank you for you assistance.”
Chopper is still sporadically circling, super anxiety inducing to hear that for an hour.
I heard from a friend on Puente that a garage was broken into and they were looking for the perp.
Question: why did SBC OEM use text to alert people of the shelter in place? Why not the Emergency alert or Public Safety alert like they use during fires? Texts are a pretty poor medium for Shelter in Place.
Also, the helicopters were circling long before shelter-in-place went out. Why wait so long?
Which one of the six choppers Big Billy has did they send up? Will he be asking for more as a result of this mission?