GILROY
– Santa Clara County deputy sheriffs called in a bomb squad and
evacuated three businesses Wednesday afternoon after finding what
appeared to be explosives in a burglary suspect’s truck at Westwood
Drive and First Street.
GILROY – Santa Clara County deputy sheriffs called in a bomb squad and evacuated three businesses Wednesday afternoon after finding what appeared to be explosives in a burglary suspect’s truck at Westwood Drive and First Street.
The suspicious package, with fuses sticking out and leaking dark-colored powder, turned out to be five long Roman candle fireworks, wrapped together in plastic with their fuses ties together, sheriff’s detective Julian Quiñonez said Wednesday evening after talking with the sheriff’s bomb squad.
During an approximately 45-minute wait for the bomb squad to arrive from San Jose, Gilroy police helped deputies close off a section of Westwood Drive, north of First Street, and cleared people from the nearby Qwik Mart, Ladies Health and Fitness and Chiropractic of Gilroy.
Deputies arrested Sergio Chavez Mungia, 38, of Gilroy, on suspicion of attempted burglary, a felony. Mungia also had an outstanding warrant for traffic violations, Quiñonez said, and he could face a misdemeanor charge for possession of illegal fireworks.
Carlos and Suzanne Lopez, who own a Gilroy construction company, positively identified Mungia as one of two men who allegedly tried to steal power tools from their storage shed. They recognized his truck – a late-1970s white pickup with a black cage on the back – broken down on Westwood Wednesday. Then they saw Mungia himself and called police from their cellular phone.
“We were driving to a job site, and then we saw the truck and said, ‘There he is! There he is!’ ” Suzanne Lopez said while watching deputies arrest Mungia. “I’m just amazed.”
When deputies arrived, a second man with Mungia – Alberto Gonzalez, 33, of Gilroy – fled north on Westwood and ran into an apartment complex, where deputies caught him hiding under some stairs. Deputies found two grams of methamphetamine in this man’s possession, determined he was under the influence of meth or a similar stimulant and arrested him.
The Lopezes said Mungia approached them two days prior in Super Taqueria at Tenth and Chestnut streets. According to them, Mungia said he had seen their company logo on their pickup truck and wanted to talk to them about getting some concrete poured. After receiving their business card and noticing their address was a post office box number, he inquired repeatedly after their street address, which they did not give him.
The next day, Suzanne Lopez said, Mungia showed up at their house – They didn’t know how he got their address – to ask further about the supposed concrete job. While she was talking with him, her landlord reportedly saw another man using bolt cutters to try to cut a lock on the shed.
The landlord chased this man off and challenged Mungia, who fled with the other man in the white cage truck. The Lopezes said they believe Mungia was intentionally distracting them, and they reported the attempted burglary to the sheriff’s department.
“If my landlord had not been home, they probably would have robbed us,” Suzanne Lopez said.
Quinonez said deputies found bolt cutters in Mungia’s truck.
Carlos Lopez said he was happy to see Mungia arrested – “Not only for me, but who else have they been robbing?” he said.
