BRIEFLY IN PUBLIC SAFETY

DUI suspect halts canyon traffic for 11 hours

A suspected drunken driver crashed into a telephone pole on the 2600 block of Laguna Canyon Road at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, halting traffic in both directions for more than 11 hours, Officer Greg Walloch said.

The telephone pole landed on a small pickup truck, totaling the vehicle, Walloch said. No one was hurt in the collision.

David Jay Taborelli, 46, of Newport Beach, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, police said.

Someone called 911 just before the crash to report that the driver of the Mercedes was “all over the road,” Walloch said.

After the collision, police turned away drivers at the start of Laguna Canyon Road in downtown Laguna, and Coast Highway was jammed during the evening rush hour.

Woman reports Peeping Tom

A woman on the 21000 block of Stan’s Lane reported a man peeped into her shower at about 10 a.m. Monday, Det. Sgt. Darin Lenyi said.

The woman said she was taking a shower when she heard her dogs begin barking and saw a shadow in the window. The man stuck his head through the window and opened the shower curtain as shampoo bottles fell, Lenyi said.

When she screamed the man ran to a car and drove off. The car may be a white Cadillac, Lenyi said.

Rattlesnake sightings up

Three rattlesnake calls answered by police this week have marked the beginning of snake season in Laguna.

According to animal control officer Joy Falk, rattlesnakes are more common in hilltop and canyon acres, but can be found anywhere.

A sighting at Main Beach last week was the result of a snake being washed out through a storm drain.

In her 22 years of working as an animal control officer in Laguna, Falk attests that rattlesnakes are not aggressive, and in the few cases where people have been bitten it is was a result of someone not looking where they were reaching, or aggressively pursuing a snake.

“They (snakes) don’t want any contact with humans,” Falk said.

In the strangest sighting Falk can remember, eight years ago someone in an office on Third Street reported a rattlesnake coming up through the toilet.

“That’s a very unusual case,” Falk said.