School Custodians Police Their Area

Rico Garcia and Mike McDaniel didn’t think that their search for their missing custodial cart would turn them into schoolhouse heroes.

But the two La Quinta High School custodians achieved a measure of fame last week when they caught two men on campus following a string of thefts at the school’s auto and wood shops.

The janitors held the men and called police. The two intruders were later charged with burglary.

On Tuesday, Principal Jim Monahan presented Garcia, 37, and McDaniel, 32, both single parents of sons, a commendation honoring them for their efforts. The two “went above and beyond,” Monahan said in praising their courage.

“We happened to be in the right place at the right time,” McDaniel said. “People vandalize the school all the time. They usually spray paint or break windows or steal something. It’s good to catch them for a change.”

Last Thursday, the two custodians arrived at work at 6 a.m. and found their electric custodial cart missing from the school, part of the Garden Grove Unified School District. Concerned over repeated classroom break-ins this year, they decided to conduct a security check.

As they searched behind the school’s kitchen near the wood shop, both men heard a door open. Suddenly, Garcia and McDaniel were face to face with two intruders, one wielding a screwdriver.

“Instinct took over and we told them to get on the ground,” Garcia said. He said he wrestled with the armed man and managed to force him to drop the screwdriver as the intruder fell to the floor.

Meanwhile, McDaniel, a four-year employee, said the second intruder “just cowered down and didn’t want to mess with me.”

Garcia and McDaniel, both unarmed, forced the two men onto their hands and knees and made them crawl through the school’s quad to the nearest telephone, where the custodians called Westminster police.

Police arrived in minutes and arrested Craig Warren Bond, 29, and Sean Erin Sullivan, 31, both of Garden Grove. The two suspects were charged with two counts each of felony burglary, Det. Al Panella said.

A follow-up investigation, Panella said, turned up thousands of dollars worth of power tools and hand tools in Bond’s home. The custodial cart wasn’t located, but a battery pack from it was found, he said.