During the months since this past January, rangers and Park Police officers have taken 28 reports of car clouts in the Battery Spencer parking lot, a popular area for visitors to get a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay. Rangers Ron Heeren, Steve Cunningham, Bruce Phillips and Mike Hardin worked out a plan to watch the area over the last weekend in September in an effort to apprehend whoever was responsible for these break-ins. On the afternoon of September 29th, Cunningham saw a heavyset man engaging in suspicious activities in the lot. He drove to the lot several times over a period of 45 minutes, each time getting out of his car, walking around the lot, and peering into vehicle windows. On his last visit to the lot, he waited for a visitor to leave his vehicle, then reached inside and removed a wallet. Cunningham notified rangers Shannon Jay and John Goodwin and asked them to stop the man’s vehicle. The rangers made a felony stop a quarter mile above the Battery Spencer lot. The driver, who was subsequently identified as Oscar Luis Mendizabel-Cuya, a Peruvian national, was taken into custody. The rangers found the wallet in his possession. USPP officer Ken Rawles and ranger Bob Del Secco searched Mendizabel-Cuya’s vehicle and found property that did not belong to him. Sergeant detective Bob Jansing placed calls to ICE and determined that Mendizabel-Cuya was in the country illegally. Mendizabel-Cuya remains under investigation by the Park Police Criminal Investigations Branch and by special agents with ICE.
