There are some nervous neighbors in Rancho Bernardo after reports of two pickup trucks that drove around the area and fatally shot rabbits, possible with BB guns.

According to the San Diego Police Department (SDPD), the incident occurred on July 20 in the 1600 block of Big Springs Way near Lofty Trail Drive.

That same night, a light colored pickup truck was captured on surveillance video last week stopping on the 15000 block of Manturin Drive near Camino Del Norte, just a few streets away from Big Springs Way.

In the video, sounds of what might have been a BB gun being fired were followed by the sound of an animal squealing in pain.

"It just seems inhumane," said homeowner Janine Gavin.

The video was recorded on surveillance cameras at Gavin's home.

She told NBC 7,  they found a dead rabbit in their yard last Thursday morning, after the pickup trucks were caught on camera the night before.

"We heard gunshots," said Gavin. "I didn’t  know what kind of shots, but it  turns out it was a pellet gun."

Gavin said the shots fired in front of her home came from a pickup truck taking aim at a rabbit in her yard. She and her husband said they are not only worried about the safety of their little girls but neighbors as well.

"I don’t want it to hit a person. I don’t know how serious that could be, but of course we don’t want that to happen," Gavin said.

"We have people that work late," said resident Lamar Alexander. "Somebody could be walking out to their car and get pellets bounced, so someone can get hurt."

There are a lot of rabbits in the neighborhood--some homes have wire mesh and other barriers to keep the animals from trespassing.

But while the rabbits are troublesome, residents said they don't want someone to shoot them.

"It’s really scary to think someone is harming them in this way. They are a nuisance but this isn’t the way we want this to be handled," said Gavin.

According to SDPD, if a  homeowner shoots a rabbit on their own property with a BB gun, it is not illegal.

But according to the Municipal Code, if someone else, such as the drivers of the pickup truck who were on public property, shoots a BB gun onto someone else’s property, it is against the law--unless permission is given.

The San Diego city council is proclaiming today to be Sergeant Peralta Day.

Sergeant Peralta was a Marine killed in combat on November 15, 2004.

Peralta pulled a grenade against his body to protect his fellow Marines during close combat with insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq.

On Saturday, the Navy's newest Arleigh Burke-class-guided-missile destroyer will be named after him.

The ship will be commissioned at N-A-S North Island.

The Peralta will be homeported in San Diego.

Peralta graduated from Morse High School in 1997, and became a U.S. citizen while serving in the Corps.

He was laid to rest at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

President Donald Trump's appearance at a national Boy Scout event hit a nerve with many former scouts after his speech turned political. The organization responded to the backlash by stressing its non-partisan roots.

At the Boys Scouts of America's National Jamboree in West Virginia on Monday, the president brought up issues such as health care, "fake media," and "the swamp" in Washington.

Many in the crowd of 40,000 scouts, leaders and volunteers booed when Trump asked whether former President Barack Obama had come to a Jamboree. Video clips also showed them jeering Hillary Clinton after Trump said that his election opponent "didn't work hard" in Michigan. The scouts also chanted "we love Trump." 

Former scouts took to social media to express opposition to the politicized speech.

The Boy Scouts of America's Facebook page was inundated with comments about Trump, including many posts unrelated to the Jamboree.

User Beth Mitchell Huntsberry commented, "The BSA should immediately lose their tax exempt status. I will no longer be associated with the organization. My time and money will go elsewhere."

"No, I am the proud mother of a former scout who was sheltered from that pack of lies speech at the Jamboree. Done with scouts after you felt the need to have my kid listen to a liar stroke his ego on our time," said Jude Nevans Cleaver, another Facebook commenter.

Some drew comparisons between the president's speech in front of the Boy Scouts and his campaign-style rallies. 

National Scout Jamborees are typically held every four years and Trump is the eighth president to attend, The Associated Press reported. Obama addressed a 100th anniversary event in 2010 by video. 

Pete Souza, a White House photographer for Obama during his presidency, posted an Instagram photo following Trump's speech showing his former boss meeting a cub scout. 

In a statement in response to the backlash, the Boy Scouts of America noted that the organization is non-partisan. They said that inviting the sitting president to the National Jamboree is a "long-standing tradition."

"The Boy Scouts of America is wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy. The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies."

The statement added that the "sitting U.S. President serves as the BSA's honorary president. It is our long-standing custom to invite the U.S. President to the National Jamboree."

The White House has not responded to a request for comment.

With the odds of one-in-five million against her, an Orlando teenager took a chance on Florida lottery scratch off ticket and scored a weekly pay day. 

Daniela Leon Ruz won the top prize in the state's new $500 A Week for Life game after purchasing one $1 ticket at a Publix grocery store, the Florida Lottery said. 

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Ruz chose to receive her winnings in weekly payouts totalling $26,000 annually before taxes instead of taking the one time lump sum of $410,000.

The annual payout is guaranteed for 20 years, meaning the teen’s family would still continue to reveive her winnings even if something should happen to her before that time.

The $1 scratch-off game launched on July 3, 2017.

The daughter of a woman found dead in a Mission Valley office building recalls the last moment she spoke with her mother, two days before her mother’s body was discovered.

Diana Stewart last spoke with her mother Maria Kelly on Thursday around 5:30 p.m. 

"On Friday, when I called her and she did not answer I didn’t really think much of it," Stewart said. "I thought well, Mom's probably busy." 

However, Stewart said she was told her mother didn't arrive at home Thursday.

Kelly's husband looked for her at the accounting office Friday morning, but the door was locked and no one was around, according to the family.

Stewart said her mother's car was at the office building Friday. 

On Saturday, family members brought a spare key to check on the victim's office. She said she was there with her father and daughter when they noticed a closed closet door. They opened the door and found Kelly's body, she said. 

San Diego homicide investigators say Kelly, 66, was found with a single gunshot wound to her body. 

The victim had been reported missing three days prior to her death, police said. 

Stewart said her mother helped people with financial questions ranging from taxes to residential loans. 

"She was smart like that," her daughter said. “She would do anything for anybody.”

Stewart's sister Crystal Vasquez rushed to the Mission Valley office on Saturday when she heard the news. Shortly after arriving, Vasquez used a bathroom in a nearby building.

When she didn't return, another family member found her inside the bathroom with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Vasquez, 34, of Chula Vista was a mother to two children ages 2 and 5 years old, Stewart said.

"I have no answers," Stewart said concerning the loss of her sister.

"I just know [my mother] and my sister were very close," she said. "My sister worked with her daily."

Now, the family is preparing for two funerals.

"It’s nothing a family ever wants to experience," Stewart said. 

Police said they do not have leads on any possible suspects. Vasquez is not suspected in the death of her mother, SDPD homicide detectives said. 

Anyone with information regarding this incident can call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

There is help for anyone contemplating suicide. The San Diego hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can get help by calling 888-724-7240.

Despite nostalgic articles and disappointed tweets mourning the end Microsoft Paint, the apparently beloved application is not going anywhere.

The application, which has been featured on every Windows release since 1985, was listed as "Deprecated" in the company’s Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

While Microsoft did not say specifically that MS Paint would be removed, the company defined features and functionalities that are "Deprecated" as those that "are not in active development and might be removed in future releases."

Outcry from users and coverage by news organizations about the loss of the classic image-editing application prompted Microsoft to set the record straight.

"MS Paint is not going away. In addition to the new 3D capabilities, many of the MS Paint features people know and love like photo editing and 2D creation are in Paint 3D - the new app for creativity, available for free with the Windows 10 Creators Update," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

"In the future, we will offer MS Paint in the Windows Store also for free and continue to provide new updates and experiences to Paint 3D so people have the best creative tools all in one place."

On Monday, a blog post shared by Windows Experiences acknowledged the "incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia" around the application.

"MS Paint is here to stay."

The Carlsbad city council will consider a controversial zoning change Tuesday that would amend the village master plan and design manual to allow distilleries and restaurants in an area where the Mayor owns property.

The mayor owns the building where the distillery would go but he is not the applicant for the zoning change.

As NBC 7's Gaby Rodriguez reports, reaction to the proposal is mixed.

A Marine’s 4-year-old son became overwhelmed with emotion and burst into tears as his new stepmom read her vows to him and his father.

Emily Newville, a Senior Airman, and Joshua Newville, a Marine Corps. Sergeant, both who are stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, New Jersey, were married on Saturday in upstate New York.

During the ceremony, Newville read a special set of vows she wrote for Joshua's son, Gage.

Gage, overcome with emotions, begins to cry and wraps his arms around Newville as the adoring crowd looked on.

"You have helped make me into the woman I am today, and I may not have give you the gift of life, but life’s surely gave me the gift of you," Newville says in her vows.

The emotional scene, which was captured on video, quickly went viral and captured heart across the country.

Newville told "Today" show reporter Sheinelle Jones that the moment Joshua asked her to marry him, she thought of Gage.

"I couldn’t be more thankful of how we’ve gotten to know each other," Newville told Jones in an interview Tuesday.

Joshua said it means a lot to have someone like Newville "who is willing to love your child as if they were their own."

Police arrested the father of a 16-day-old baby boy who was abandoned in the parking lot of a Suisun City strip mall Monday.

Daniel Mitchell, 18, was taken into custody on probable cause for child endangerment, child abandonment, committing a felony while on bail and misdemeanor possession of suspected cocaine, Suisun City police said.

A little after 3 p.m. Monday, a pair of barber shop employees at the strip mall in the 140 block of Sunset Avenue noticed a car seat sitting in the parking lot and went to pick it up when he saw the baby inside of it, police said. The barber took the baby inside and called police.

"He pulled up, took the baby out, put him down," said Wendell Cooper, explaining what he saw outside the barber shop at the Sunset Mall. "He sat him down, took him back out then he gets in the car and he leaves."

Eriq Keeton grabbed the car seat and brought it inside the barber shop.

"I walked over (there) and saw the baby sitting in the car seat," he said.

Surveillance video from one of the businesses captured it all, and officers were able trace the license plate back to Mitchell, police said. 

Mitchell was involved in a hit-and-run crash in Fairfield later Monday and was apprehended by Fairfield police in that incident. He was transported to North Bay Medical Center, where he was treated for injuries sustained in the collision.

Suisun City police interviewed him at the hospital and identified him as the boy's father.

The baby was in the care of Solano County Child Protective Services late Monday, police said, and investigators were talking with the baby's mother.

Initially, the boy did not appear injured, but he was airlifted to Children's Hospital Oakland as a precaution when he appeared to have redness in one eye, police said.

Mitchell was previously arrested on June 27 by Suisun City police on multiple felony charges, including possession of a firearm, after a report of a burglary on Gray Hawk Lane in Suisun City, police said.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to contact Detective Sousa at (707) 421-7361. Information can also be reported anonymously to Solano Crime Stoppers at (707) 644-7867.

NASA Astronaut Jack Fischer captured this timelapse video of the aurora borealis while aboard the International Space Station. The video, taken 250 miles above Earth and at a speed of 17,500 mph, was posted on Fischer's Twitter account July 21. 

"People have asked me what a 'burrito of awesomeness smothered in awesome sauce' is … Well folks, it looks like this … awesome sauce is green," he tweeted.

Aurora borealis is the result of collisions between the Earth’s gaseous particles and matter released by the sun’s atmosphere, according to NASA.

California Highway Patrol officers have closed two lanes on northbound Interstate 805 at Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. 

San Diego police were called to the intersection just before 9 a.m. 

A SigAlert was issued due to the police activity. 

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.

Barbara Sinatra, the widow of Frank Sinatra, died Tuesday at her home Rancho Mirage, California. She was 90. 

"She died comfortably surrounded by family and friends at her home," John E. Thoresen, Director of the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center Foundation, said in a statement to the Desert Sun.

The philanthropist was the music icon's fourth wife. They were married in 1976 until Frank Sinatra's death in 1998.

In her 2012 memoir, "Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank Sinatra," Barbara revealed details of the couple's 22-year marriage, the longest of his four.  

Materials development company BLOOM, which makes flexible foams using algae harvested from freshwater sources, announced it has partnered with Carlsbad-based manufacturer Surftech to offer paddle boards with more environmentally sustainable deck pads.

BLOOM is headquartered in Mississippi, but its California operations – including its managing director, Rob Falken – are in Solana Beach.

Surftech, which makes stand-up paddle boards and surfboards, said the foam pads, which provide traction, will be on select models of paddle boards that will be available for sale globally in early 2018.

A board made with the foam is a more environmentally sustainable option than conventional materials because some of the petroleum ingredients typically used in the manufacturing of the pad are replaced with algae, a sustainable resource.

One paddle board with BLOOM foam will return 176 gallons of clean, filtered water to the habitat from which the algae was harvested and keeps the equivalent of about 123 12-inch birthday balloons full of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, BLOOM said.

“We’re excited about our collaboration with Surftech as they are an established market leader within the paddle board industry,” Falken said. “We hope they will be a beacon for others in the industry to consider their environmental impact in all that they do.”

The boards are scheduled to debut this week at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, a trade show in Utah.

A woman was arrested Monday in connection with the felony hit-and-run that killed a motorcyclist in Chula Vista in early July, said police.

On July 3, a man was struck and killed while riding his motorcycle in the 2400 block of Main Street, according to Chula Vista police. Another driver pulled in front of him and struck the driver's side of the vehicle.

The motorcyclist sustained traumatic injuries and died at the scene. The suspect took off, driving away from the crash.

Within a few days, CVPD officers found the suspect's vehicle and identified the suspect as Tina Murray, 46, a resident of Long Beach.

Weeks later, CVPD detectives were able to locate Murray and arrest her. She was charged with felony hit-and-run and was booked into the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee on July 24, according to police.

The victim was identified as Pablo Rosa-Velez, a husband and father who lived in the South Bay. He had gotten married recently and was expecting his second child before he was killed.

Murray's current bail is set at $100,000, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. No further information was immediately available.

Firefighters are working to put out a fire at an apartment building in Chula Vista, confirmed the authorities.

Fire crews responded to several reports of smoke at the apartment building, located near Otay Ranch High School, according to the Chula Vista Fire Department. The building is at the 1500 block of Corte Barcelona.

Smoke and flames were seen rising from a first-floor room in the apartment.

At about 11 a.m., paramedics were helping one patient, said CVFD officials. Fire investigators were requested at the scene.

It was not yet known what caused the fire, or whether there were any injuries. No other information was immediately available.

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.

Cal Fire crews are getting the upper hand on a brush fire burning in steep, rocky terrain in rural San Diego County. 

The Lost Fire sparked Saturday approximately four miles north of Warner Springs. 

The fire was held at 255 acres and crews had the fire 85 percent surrounded as of Tuesday morning, Cal Fire officials said.

The fire, near the Indian Flats Campground, started near La Cruz and Lost Valley Road.  

Voluntary evacuation warnings, issued Saturday for the Chihuahua Valley area, north of Warner Springs, were lifted Sunday evening. 

The Lost Valley Boy Scout Camp and its 75 campers were moved out of the area by officials soon after the fire was reported. 

Boy Scouts of San Diego said they will welcome any scout troops affected by the fire to their camps. The Lost Valley Camp is owned and operated by the Boy Scouts of Orange County. 

The Indian Flats campground was also evacuated.

Highway 79 was closed at Indian Flats Road and also Chihuahua Valley Road and Puerta LaCruz Road. 

In a high-profile criminal case in which a local marijuana attorney is accused of destroying evidence, a San Diego judge took measures to prevent the prosecution from potentially accessing documents protected by attorney-client privilege.

At a hearing Friday at Superior Court of San Diego County, the defense and the prosecution spent the better of two hours deliberating over methods to search the seized computer of the defendant, cannabis lawyer Jessica McElfresh, for potentially incriminating information, without invading her past clients’ confidentiality.

In front of a courtroom filled with interested attorneys and people in the marijuana industry, Judge Laura W. Halgren determined the search should begin with a query of McElfresh’s computer for only the names of people and businesses specifically mentioned as targets in the search warrant released in June. McElfresh’s own name will not be included in the initial search because the results would be too broad.

The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo, argued the entire contents of McElfresh’s computer should be searched for evidence that McElfresh helped Med-West Distribution hide from city inspectors that the company was storing and distributing concentrated cannabis oil in violation zoning laws. He proposed using search terms such as “ethanol” and “butane,” chemicals commonly used in cannabis extraction, and “marijuana” so that no potential piece of evidence will be missed.

Defense attorney Eugene Iredale argued such a search would break attorney-client privilege for hundreds of people whom McElfresh has counseled and are unaffiliated with the case. In addition, he said the universe of electronic files to be reviewed by an impartial “special master” prior to submittal to the court should be limited only to those responsive to a search of McElfresh’s computer for files containing the names of individuals and entities explicitly identified as targets in the search warrant.

Halgren sided with Iredale, saying, too broad a universe is “not very feasible.” She said Del Portillo would be allowed to litigate later in the proceedings for the review of records not included in the initial search, but that searching only for individuals and entities named in the search warrant is “a good starting point.”

“I’m very happy that we seem to be focused on what is currently my number-one priority, which is protecting the privilege of clients who have nothing to do with this case,” McElfresh told NBC 7 after the hearing.

The warrant shows McElfresh, at the time of a scheduled inspection, told investigators Med-West only made and sold packaging materials for marijuana products, but a raid of its 14,000-square-foot warehouse just over a year later revealed thousands of vials of concentrated cannabis oil used in vaporizers, expensive lab equipment, and ethanol.

Then-District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis filed a slate of felony charges against Med-West chief executive officer James Slatic and four others affiliated with the business earlier this year.

An email between McElfresh and Slatic allegedly suggested McElfresh hid her client’s criminal acts from city investigators inspecting Med-West premises. Superior Court Judge Charles G. Rogers reviewed the email and ruled that certain records should no longer be protected, citing the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege.

“We did a really, really good job of giving them plausible deniability — and it was clear to them that it wasn’t a dispensary,” said McElfresh in the email, which was released in the search warrant. “But I think they suspected it was something else more than paper.”

Prosecutors charged McElfresh with a misdemeanor charge of destroying evidence after a warrant search of McElfresh’s home found an iPad submerged in water, which Del Portillo called “suspicious.”

Iredale said the iPad belonged to McElfresh’s mother, who was getting rid of it and wanted to permanently delete her information from it.

Because many of McElfresh’s seized paper and electronic documents contained privileged communications with her past clients, they were turned over to “special master” Shaun Martin, an impartial University of San Diego law professor, for review. Martin has since reviewed all the paper documents, he said at the hearing Friday.

The prosecution and defense are set to meet again on August 11 for a short briefing on the status of Martin’s review of the electronic files.

There's trouble in paradise: It doesn't look like everyone is a fan of a plan to open a 1,900-seat venue at the Del Mar Fairgrounds next year -- namely, the City of Solana Beach.

As we reported in May, the 22nd District Agricultural Association's (which owns and operates the Del Mar Fairgrounds) voted at a board of directors meeting on May 23 to unanimously move ahead with a $13 million rehaul/renovation to the existing fairgrounds off-track betting facility known as the Surfside Race Place.

As it turns out, more than a few area residents aren't happy about it. At the May 23 meeting, Solana Beach City Councilmember Jewel Edson, Del Mar Mayor Terry Sinnott and several county residents voiced objections to the project -- which included concerns about traffic, air quality, noise pollution, security and an overall negative impact to the community.

The 22nd DAA board ultimately dismissed those objections to the project, which has a planned completion date of May 1, 2018. In addition to the two-level live-music venue (at which organizers plan to host 90 shows per year), the building will also be expanded to include a 7,000-square-foot beer-tasting area and exhibit named the History of Beer.

However, the project's opponents weren't done: On June 23, the city of Solana Beach filed a civil complaint in San Diego Superior Court to halt the project and, according to court documents, require the 22nd DAA to "comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) ... and its implementing regulations ... and to perform the environmental review required by law before approving a proposed expansion of existing uses and redevelopment of existing facilities."

The 22nd DAA has previously informed residents that environmental impact studies performed more than 30 years ago for the site, and its existing permits, are still valid and exempt the new project from further review.

According to an article published in the Coast News on Jan. 5, 22nd DAA Director David Watson said at a Jan. 3 board of directors meeting: "This building [under] the current permit allows a 5,000-per-day occupancy. It is nowhere near that number.

"Simply converting a portion of it to an 1,800- or 1,900-seat concert venue should have no changes in traffic, no changes in parking," Watson continued. "Considering all the major, huge events that this fairgrounds does, this is just a little blip on the radar in terms of impacts outside the fairgrounds."

The recently filed injunction looks to address that by forcing a halt to the project until a full environmental impact report can be performed and evaluated.

Requests for comment from both Solana Beach City Attorney Johanna Canlas and the 22nd DAA went unanswered at the time of this article's publication.

Dustin Lothspeich books The Merrow, plays in Diamond Lakes, and runs the music equipment-worshipping blog Gear and Loathing in San Diego. Follow his updates on Twitter or contact him directly.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have found that microbial species living on cheese have transferred thousands of genes between each other.

The study identified regional hotspots where such gene exchanges take place, including several genomic “islands” where several species of bacteria exchange genes.

Postdoctoral fellow Kevin Bonham and assistant professor Rachel Dutton of UC San Diego’s Division of Biological Sciences, along with Benjamin Wolfe, a former postdoctoral fellow in Dutton’s lab now at Tufts University, conducted the research.

They used the rinds of artisanal cheese varieties as simple model systems to study microbiomes, or communities of microorganisms.

Microbiomes are known to play a key function in many areas, including human health, protecting us from some diseases and amplifying others.

Cheese rinds offer a novel way to study how genes in microbial communities are passed from one organism to another in a process known as “horizontal gene transfer.” Details of the study were published July 25 in the journal eLIFE.

“We examined the genomes of over 150 bacteria from cheese, and found more than 4,000 genes that were shared between bacterial species, including several large genomic islands that were shared by many species,” said Dutton, in a statement.

“Horizontal gene transfer has been studied for decades, but examining it in a more natural context is challenging because it requires studying an entire community of microbes, rather than studying them in isolation," explained Dutton.

A large percentage of transferred genes deal with acquiring nutrients, especially iron, which is known to be in short supply on the surface of cheese, said Dutton.

Competition for iron is an important theme for microbes in many environments, including during infections of humans by pathogenic microbes, according to the study.

“Horizontal gene transfer could influence competition for iron and possibly enable ‘cheating’ within a mixed community,” said Dutton.

Based on the new results, Dutton and her colleagues are now probing the intricate dynamics of horizontal gene transfer and how the process unfolds on cheese.

“Since horizontal gene transfer is prevalent in many microbial communities, including those important for human health, we’re now trying to study how this process impacts microbial life and death in a community,” said Dutton.

The new owners of the historic Balboa Park Carousel kicked off a fundraising campaign Tuesday to help restore the ride to its 1910 glory.

The nonprofit organization, Friends of Balboa Park, purchased the carousel from a private owner on June 30. The group's plan is to help preserve the carousel as a piece of Balboa Park's history and keep it running for future generations.

Friends of Balboa Park held a special ceremony and fundraiser starting at 10:30 a.m. A red ribbon was cut, marking a new beginning for the ride, which is over 100 years old.

Fittingly, Tuesday was National Carousel Day. The organization offered free rides on the carousel from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The fundraising portion of the event goes until 2:30 p.m., and also includes children's music, face-painting, and carnival activities.

Several San Diego leaders joined the event, including Councilman Chris Ward and Supervisor Ron Roberts.

The carousel, located off Park Boulevard, near the entrance to the San Diego Zoo, was originally built in 1910 by Herschell-Spillman Co. in Luna Park in Los Angeles.

In 1913, its ownership transferred to H.D. Simpson, who moved the carousel to Coronado’s Tent City. In 1915, the ride was moved from Coronado to Balboa Park for the Panama-California Exposition. Two years later, it moved back to Coronado.

In 1922, the carousel returned to Balboa Park. It sat at the site that now houses the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center until 1968. It was moved to its current location that year, and some structural and aesthetic updates were added. In 1977, private owner Bill Steen purchased the carousel.

Steen managed the carousel for 40 years before selling it to Friends of Balboa Park. He sold it below market price so the nonprofit could afford to buy it, restore it and resume its operation.

The restoration of the ride, according to Friends of Balboa Park executive director John Bolthouse, will be quite the project for his group.

"Since 1999, Friends has partnered with the City Parks and Recreation Department to help fund projects throughout the park, and the carousel is our largest undertaking yet," Bolthouse explained.

Friends of Balboa Park is starting a capital campaign to raise $3 million by 2020, which will go toward the purchase of the carousel and to maintain the ride, which boasts all original parts, including the General Electric motor built in 1910.

To date, the nonprofit has raised $800,000 of its goal.

In a press release, Bolthouse said the organization is looking forward to keeping the carousel in the spotlight, “just as was intended more than a century ago.”

The carousel’s regular hours of operation are weekends, holidays and summer months from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It costs $3 for the five-minute ride or $10 for four rides.

The Balboa Park Carousel is a “menagerie model” carousel, which means it includes horses as well as other animals. Its two-level platform features 12 jumping horses, 15 standing horses, and 25 other animals made of original, hand-carved English Lindenwood. This includes one camel, two cats, one deer, two dogs, one dragon, two frogs, two giraffes, one goat, one lion, two mules, two ostriches, two pigs, two roosters, one stork, one tiger and two zebras. The platform also includes three chariots.

The hand-painted murals that surround the upper portion of the carousel are also original pieces.

According to Friends of Balboa Park, the carousel is one of the few in the world that still offer the “brass ring game” for those taking the ride. The game – a feature of vintage carousels from the 19th and early 20th centuries – features a ring dispenser and target, and those who hit the target get a free ride on the carousel.

To donate to the campaign, click here.