Evacuee imposters turned over to authorities

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Qualcomm Stadium:

Michael Turley, a financial advisor from San Diego, was volunteering at the San Diego evacuation center Wednesday, handing out food and other goods to displaced families, when he saw a half-dozen people using wheelchairs to load supplies into tents, then shifting them into cars and trucks with Baja California license plates.

‘It was a total slap in the face,’ said Turley, who has been volunteering at the stadium since Monday. ‘Here we had been volunteering and busting our butts, and people were taking all this.’

Turley approached the people, but they told him they didn’t speak English. He called in police, who questioned the three couples. They had three children with them — two boys, ages 13 and 8, and a 2 year-old girl.

Police determined that none of them were evacuees, according to San Diego Police spokeswoman Monica Munoz. Two couples, including the children’s parents, admitted to being undocumented immigrants and were turned over to immigration agents, Munoz said. The third couple was released without being charged, Munoz said.

Munoz said that starting tonight, police will be asking for identification from those entering the stadium.

Turley said he understands that police are ‘stretched thin’ and said they and National Guardsmen have done a good job of securing the stadium.

‘It really is a completely different thing than Katrina, but you still have some of that occurring,’ Turley said. ‘That just ate me up. A lot of us have families who were evacuated.’

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske

For the record: An earlier version of this post described undocumented immigrants as Mexican. The police spokeswoman said she did not identify them that way.