Just a friendly neighborhood crime fighter

It was just a little blurb in the paper on page 4 on Sunday, June

23.

The story of a robbery at the Golden Spoon yogurt shop on 17th

Street in Costa Mesa that ended with a short police chase.

Some readers may have skimmed through the blurb but probably

didn’t pay much attention to this line a little bit later in the

story:

“A witness at a neighboring business told police she saw [the

suspect] fleeing the shop and chased him around the corner before the

suspect jumped into a burgundy Volvo.”

It was fairly inconsequential, but as is the case in lots of tales

that we run in our newspaper, there was more to this yarn than meets

the eye.

Turns out the witness was one Jodi de Boom, daughter of longtime

Daily Pilot columnist and former Newport-Mesa school board trustee

Jim de Boom.

Jodi de Boom, 24, had been visiting her family that early summer

day, down from college up in Northern California. She and her sister,

Stacy, 28, were just finishing up a pedicure at Maxims, a nail shop

that sits in the same strip mall as Golden Spoon on the corner of

Irvine Avenue and 17th Street in Costa Mesa.

“We heard some screaming and crashing and this man came running

out of Golden Spoon yogurt,” she said. “I dropped my purse and my

keys and took off after him. He was ahead of me running against

traffic on the sidewalk on Irvine and made a left on Cabrillo.”

As she chased the man, and Stacy called 911, a passerby stopped,

also with the police on the line.

Jodi was able to give police valuable information about the

suspect and his whereabouts. Since the police helicopter had been

called to action moments before because of another incident, within

15 seconds it was hovering above Jodi, she said.

Knowing the police were hot on the suspect’s tail, Jodi returned

to the yogurt shop to see if the victim there was OK. The police

informed her they had caught the suspect and wanted her to go with

them to the arrest scene and identify him.

Jodi went along, but not after they gave her instructions on the

presumed innocence of the man she was going to identify. They also

cautioned her not to talk with anyone about the incident until after

the investigation and trial was finished.

That’s a pretty tall order for someone whose father is a newspaper

columnist.

But now that the man has been convicted of the crime, Jodi can

talk freely.

And one of my first questions to her was just what the heck was

she thinking chasing after a robbery suspect?

“My concern was that someone had been injured,” she said, noting

that she heard screams coming from the yogurt shop. “I didn’t want

him to go unpunished. In that split second, I took off after him. The

cops can’t be everywhere, and maybe it was silly for me to do it, but

it was just natural. If I were the woman who was working at Golden

Spoon, I would need that closure.”

Her actions didn’t surprise her dad, Jim, or mom, Barbara, a

former Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce staffer.

“Jodi has always been a person with integrity and honesty and

willing to take risks like that,” Jim de Boom said. “While a lot of

people would just stand by and let it pass, Jodi is the type who gets

involved.”

“Sometimes more than we’d like her to,” said her mom.

Still, while they wish she’d take less risks, they are very proud

of both Jodi and Stacy, who is a Newport-Mesa teacher.

“We’ve been blessed,” Jim said.

As for Jodi, who unfortunately was paid back three weeks later

when her cell phone was stolen, she has these thoughts for the

robber, who netted $105 in the caper.

“Hopefully he’ll realize how ridiculous that was,” she said.

Especially if someone like Jodi is nearby.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He can be reached at (949) 574-4258

or via e-mail at tony.dodero@latimes.com.