Sheriff's officials say they have found the 9-year-old boy who ran away from home Thursday evening in Imperial Beach, prompting an area-wide search that involved the agency's helicopter.

The boy's mother said she and her son had an argument about his homework. After taking a nap Thursday afternoon, she found the 9-year-old was missing, according to the The San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

The mother called 911 just before 7 p.m.

One of the child's teachers reported last seeing him in the 800 block of Seacoast Drive talking to a homeless person between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Sheriff's spokesperson Jan Caldwell told NBC 7 the boy was found on his bike at the main gate of NAS Coronado at about 10 p.m.

Café Gratitude, which operates organic and vegan restaurants in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas, plans an early 2015 opening in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy.

Company officials said construction will begin this fall on a 4,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of Broadstone Little Italy, a 203-unit mixed-use apartment development completed earlier this year at 1980 Kettner Blvd.

The San Diego location will feature a menu of 100 percent organic, seasonal vegan items, with juices, desserts, coffee and breakfast pastries, among other offerings. The executive chef at the new restaurant will be Dreux Ellis.

Nate Benedetto, of brokerage company Strom Commercial, brokered the leasing transaction for the San Diego location. Other restaurants and shops will be coming to Broadstone Little Italy but have not yet been announced.

Started 11 years ago by Matthew and Terces Engelhart in the San Francisco Bay Area, Café Gratitude has five current eateries, including locations in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and Kansas City, Mo.

Broadstone Little Italy was developed by Alliance Residential Co. and was recently acquired by a Dallas buyer listed as Apartments at Little Italy LLC for $102.5 million, according to CoStar Group and public data.
 

The Business Journal is the premier business publication in San Diego. Every day online and each Monday in print, the Business Journal reports on how local business operate and why businesses leaders make the decisions they do. Every story is a dose of insight into how to run a better, more efficient, more profitable business.

The man who admitted to jumping a woman as she walked along a Balboa Park trail has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Ameen Bryant, 22, received the maximum sentence Thursday after pleading guilty last month to attempted robbery. He has a prior robbery conviction on his record from a 2012 incident. 

In August, Bryant was tried on a charge of assault with intent to rape stemming from the Jan. 14 incident, but he told the court he had attacked the woman to steal her phone, not rape her.

A deadlocked jury forced the judge to declare a mistrial, and the District Attorney’s Office decided not to retry the case because they say it’s hard to prove a defendant’s intent.

Instead, prosecutors and defense attorneys worked out a plea deal in which Bryant admits to the attempted robbery charge.

The charges come from the January attack, when Bryant grabbed the victim as she walked alone on the Bridle Trail in broad daylight. He forced her to the ground, and when the woman screamed, he tried to stuff dirt in her face.

Bryant then ran away as two people walked up along the trail.

After the incident, police released a composite sketch of the suspect in an effort to find him. The next day, Bryant was taken into custody.

A woman died Thursday after being hit by a car in the Oak Park area.

The 64-year-old woman was crossing the street in the 1500 block of Euclid Avenue when she was struck by a Ford van driven by a 57-year-old woman heading north on Euclid Avenue, San Diego police said.

The collision happened just before 11:30 a.m.

The pedestrian suffered serious fractures to her pelvic area and spine and was taken to the hospital.

Just after 3:30 p.m., she died at the hospital, police said.

Alcohol was not believed to be involved in the collision. The investigation is continuing.

The woman’s name has not been released.

A San Diego-based Marine who went missing after an aircraft malfunction is presumed dead.

On Thursday, the Navy announced it had called off the search for the missing air crew member.

The Navy has not released the Marine’s name but said the crew member is enlisted with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is based at Camp Pendleton.

Two pilots and two enlisted personnel were aboard the MV-22B Osprey when it took off from USS Makin Island on Wednesday in the Persian Gulf. The aircraft lost power shortly after takeoff. The two air crew members jumped into the ocean when they thought they were going to crash, according to the Navy.

The pilot gained control of the plane and landed safely on the ship. One Marine was pulled from the water, but the other was never found despite an extensive search, the Navy said.

USS Makin Island, an amphibious assault ship, is based at Naval Base San Diego. The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and the 11th MEU deployed last July to support operations in the Middle East.

A wild 90-minute police pursuit over Orange County freeways ended with the capture of the “Hills Bandit,” an elusive suspect who the FBI has tied to numerous bank robberies and attempted robberies across Southern California, including three in San Diego.

The ordeal started Thursday when a steel company called the Whittier Police Department to report suspected fraud in a $12,000 order of steel.

WPD officers say a man – later identified as Stephen Richard Bartlett, 53 – picked up the steel, loaded it in a white stake truck and started to drive away. When police tried to pull him over, the suspect sped off, leading pursuing officers on a long chase through Whittier, Santa Fe Springs, La Habra and Brea.

WPD officials say as he drove the wrong way over surface streets and freeways, Bartlett threw a gun out the window. Investigators later recovered it and identified it was a replica black semi-automatic.

The pursuit, which reached speeds up to 85 mph, ended when the driver violently crashed off the 210 Freeway.

Bartlett was taken to the hospital for minor injuries. The FBI has since identified him as the man wanted for at least eight bank robberies dating back to May, the WPD says.

The suspect is accused of holding up a U.S. Bank in Carlsbad on Aug. 5, a California Bank and Trust on La Jolla Village Drive on Aug. 25 and a Union Bank on Girard Avenue in San Diego on Sept. 8. In the last incident, no money was taken.

Similar robberies took place in Laguna Hills, Lake Forest and Laguna Niguel.

The FBI says in each heist, the “Hills Bandit” passes a demand note to the teller, threatening he has a weapon and demanding cash in 100s, 50s and 20s. Surveillance cameras caught him wearing glasses and Raiders, Chargers, Titleist or L.A. Angels baseball hats.

When Bartlett is transferred to jail, he will be booked on charges of felony theft, felony evading, felony vehicle embezzlement, two hit-and-run crashes and numerous bank robberies.

A seventh-grade teacher hit a 13-year-old boy over the head with a plastic milk crate during class, cutting open his skin and causing him to bleed, his family alleges. 

Jaiquan Maples said his teacher at the Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters in Mott Haven was asking another student a question on Sept. 18, and when the student didn't know the answer, Maples blurted it out without raising his hand as he was supposed to. 

"She, with a mad face, went to the bookshelf where we hand in our homework and grabbed the crate and came furious with a mad face, walking really fast, and hit me in my head with it," he said. 

Maples said his teacher gave him a tissue to clean the blood and then kept teaching. But the bleeding didn't stop, and he asked to use the bathroom. He said she agreed after 10 minutes and followed him there. 

"She sat me down and talked to me and said that she was being playful with me and it was by accident, and that she didn't intend to hurt me," he said.

Maples said he never went to see the nurse or to speak to the principal until his mother stepped in. 

"No adult should play like that," said Jennifer Vasquez. "We teach our kids not to play like that with each other, so why would an adult play like that?" 

Vasquez took her son to the emergency room. He did not need stitches, but doctors are monitoring him. 

Now the honor-roll student who has won several awards for dance and pageants says he is nervous about going to class and wants to switch schools. His mother wants him removed from the classroom immediately. 

"I sit there with my head down, worrying if she's going to hit me or something," he said. 

The Department of Education said it learned about the case when Vasquez went to the school and reported it to the principal. The principal informed DOE authorities, and the "matter is under investigation," officials said. 

The school has an enrollment of nearly 570 students in grades six through 12, according to the city's schools website. It offers a college-prep curriculum with a focus on writing. 

"Our students achieve mastery of the word in the context of a rigorous, college-preparatory environment that celebrates vision, expression, tenacity, inquiry, integrity, and compassion," the school's website states. 

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The FBI is assisting Los Angeles police in a search for a California State University, Northridge student who disappeared last month, officials confirmed Thursday.

Abdullah Alkadi was last seen on Sept. 17 at his home in the 9900 block of Reseda Boulevard, police said. He had been planning to sell his car to a man he met through Craigslist.

Police could not immediately confirm whether detectives had contacted the buyer of Alkadi's car.

Los Angeles and CSUN police have been searching for Alkadi since his disappearance, and requested assistance from the FBI, which is now helping with resources to locate him, officials confirmed in an email.

Detective Frank Flores told the LA Daily News that the FBI expressed interest in the search for Alkadi because he is an international student, from Saudi Arabia.

Alkadi's family has also asked the public’s help in spreading the word and reporting any information.

"Please people, I am sure he is somewhere in the LA area," his brother Ahmed Alkadi said last month. "Give information around you on the street or bus, gas stations, wherever, give us a tip. It is a great help for us."

A Twitter account with Alkadi's name lists him as an electrical engineering student at CSUN. The most recent tweet is dated Sept. 14.

Alkadi is described as a Middle Eastern man with black hair and brown eyes, 5 foot 3 inches tall and about 110 pounds. He was last seen wearing a blue shirt, blue jeans or beige shorts, Los Angeles police said.

Anyone with information should call LAPD's Missing Persons Unit at 213-996-1800. Anonymous tips can be reported to Crime Stoppers by calling 800-222-TIPS (8477) or by texting CRIMES (274637).

A portrait of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, and of the web of contacts he may have made in the few days since he arrived in Dallas from West Africa, is emerging as health officials try to contain the deadly virus' spread.

Here's what we know so far about the patient, how he got here, whom he may have exposed to Ebola, how the virus may have been spread and what could happen next.

WHO IS THE EBOLA PATIENT?

Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man with family in the United States, boarded a Brussels-bound plane in his hometown of Monrovia en route to Dallas on Sept. 19, days after neighbors in Monrovia said he helped carry a woman dying of Ebola to the hospital. It is unclear whether he knew of her diagnosis before traveling.

His brother in Phoenix, Arizona, told The Associated Press that Duncan had headed to the U.S. to be with his girlfriend and child. He said he did not believe Duncan knew he had Ebola before he left Liberia.

HOW DID HE GET HERE?

Duncan is believed to have flown to the U.S. via Brussels on Sept. 20. United Airlines believes he took two connecting United flights that day to get to Dallas — flying from Brussels to Washington Dulles on Flight 951 and then from Dulles to Dallas-Fort Worth on Flight 822 the same day.

He boarded those flights, according to the Liberian government, after answering "no" at the airport to a health screening form's questions about whether he had cared for anybody with the virus or touched the body of anyone who died in an area where Ebola is prevalent.

Liberia says it will prosecute him for lying on the forms, though it is unclear whether Duncan knew the woman he had helped had Ebola.

WHAT HAS HE DONE SINCE HE GOT HERE?

Duncan was taken to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital after 10 p.m. Sept. 25 — not Sept. 26, as officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had earlier said — with a low-grade fever and abdominal pain.

Hospital officials said Duncan told a nurse that he had traveled from Liberia, but that information was not passed on to other workers there. Doctors, apparently not suspecting Ebola, diagnosed him with a low-risk infection and sent him home with antibiotics. The hospital later said flaws in its electronic health record-keeping, not human error, had caused doctors to miss the diagnosis.

Duncan returned to the hospital by ambulance on Sunday, Sept. 28, and was isolated. NBC News reported that a neighbor said that Duncan was "throwing up all over the place" as he was bundled into an ambulance.

A specimen sent to a state lab in Austin confirmed Tuesday, Sept. 30, that Duncan had contracted Ebola. Those test results were confirmed by the CDC in Atlanta.

As of Friday, Duncan remained listed in serious but stable condition.

WHO MAY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED?

The four people living in the apartment where Duncan was staying when he fell ill — a woman, her 13-year-old son and her two nephews — were being moved to a new apartment Friday, after earlier being ordered to stay in their contaminated apartment in court-ordered quarantine under armed guard.

Texas health officials, meanwhile, are focusing their efforts to contain the virus. They have narrowed their monitoring to a group of about 50 people who may have had some level of exposure to Duncan, after earlier saying they would reach out to as many as 100 who may have had direct contact with him.

Among those are 12 to 18 people who came in direct contact with Duncan, including an ambulance crew and a group of school children. Three siblings who attend Wallace Elementary School in Richardson were sent home Thursday after authorities learned they may have come in contact with him, after five students at four different Dallas schools were sent home earlier in the week.

None of those people is showing symptoms, but health officials have educated them about Ebola and told them to contact them if they fall ill, a health official told The Associated Press.

Because Duncan did not fall ill for several days after he arrived in Dallas, the CDC says the other passengers on the flights he took are not at risk. Duncan showed no symptoms of Ebola when he traveled to the U.S., and he registered no fever when his temperature was checked at the Monrovia airport, CDC chief Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters on Thursday.

HOW MIGHT EBOLA HAVE BEEN SPREAD?

Duncan may have been infected with Ebola from helping to get his landlord's Ebola-stricken daughter to the hospital in a taxi. It is not yet known whether, or how, he may have spread the virus to anybody else while infected.

Ebola can only be spread by infected people who show symptoms. The virus can be spread through the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or an infected person's body. It can also be spread by objects contaminated with Ebola, like syringes or other medical equipment, and by infected animals or meat. Contaminated objects can be disinfected with bleach.

If an exposed person does not develop symptoms within 21 days of exposure, the person will not become sick with Ebola, according to the CDC — though the virus has been found in semen for up to three months after exposure.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The four people with whom Duncan was staying were being moved to a new, clean apartment on Friday, just after crews finished decontaminating their apartment.

For days they had been ordered not to leave that apartment. On Friday, that changed, after the apartment was cleaned and the sheets and dirty towels Duncan had used while sick were removed.

A Dallas County official apologized to the family for how long it took to remove those items from the apartment; officials said they had had trouble finding a contractor willing to clean up the apartment.

A patient is being evaluated for Ebola at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., a hospital spokesperson confirmed Friday.

That person has been admitted to the hospital in stable condition and is isolated. The medical team is working with the CDC and other authorities to monitor the patient's condition.

"In an abundance of caution, we have activated the appropriate infection control protocols, including isolating the patient," said hospital spokesperson Kerry-Ann Hamilton in a statement. "Our medical team continues to evaluate and monitor progress in close collaboration with the CDC and the Department of Health."

Hamilton did not share further details about the patient, citing privacy reasons, but said the hospital will provide updates as warranted.

In a White House briefing Friday, Sylvia Burwell, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said of the Howard case,  "What you see are people taking precautions."

The D.C. Department of Health released a statement shortly before 1 p.m. Friday, saying that the department has been working with the CDC and Howard University Hospital to monitor "any patients displaying symptoms associated with the Ebola virus."

There are no confirmed cases of Ebola in D.C., said the statement.

Meanwhile, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, Maryland, said a patient that had been tested for possible Ebola does not have the disease.

And two Virginians are being tested for the disease after they met the travel criteria set by the CDC, according to NBC12 in Richmond -- though state health officials said they do not believe the patients have the disease.

The patients were isolated from the general population, but were not ordered to be quarantined, NBC12 reported.

U.S. officials said at the White House briefing Friday that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was not just an international health crisis but a national security priority.

The health systems of some West African countries are "inadequate" and not capable of stemming the outbreak that they face, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, who runs the infectious disease division of the National Institutes of Health. But, he said, the U.S. system is able to handle any cases of Ebola that emerge safely.

Between July 27 and Oct. 1, there have been 100 consultations between the CDC, state and local health departments, and healthcare providers regarding persons suspected of Ebola, according to a CDC spokesperson. Only 15 people warranted testing by CDC or one of the labs certified to do Ebola testing, because they met the travel profile and their symptoms were consistent.

Fourteen labs in the U.S. can test for Ebola, and most will still send a sample to the CDC for confirmation.

So far, only one of those 15 cases tested by the CDC has tested positive for Ebola.

Ebola is contagious only when infected people are showing symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who have been exposed to Ebola will show signs of it within 21 days of exposure, the CDC said.

"There is no risk to people who have been in contact with those who have been sick with Ebola and recovered, or people who have been exposed and have not yet shown symptoms," said Dr. Thomas Frieden of the CDC.

On Tuesday, the CDC confirmed the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the United States. The patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, flew from his hometown of Monrovia, Liberia, and through Brussels, Belgium on Sept. 20 before entering the United States via Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. He then traveled on to Dallas-Fort Worth.

Duncan, a Liberian man with family in the United States, first went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Sept. 25 but was sent home. He returned to the hospital via ambulance Sunday.

On Friday, he was listed in serious but stable condition.

Thursday, news broke that a freelance NBC cameraman covering the outbreak in Monrovia, Liberia had tested positive for Ebola after experiencing symptoms of the disease.

The cameraman, Ashoka Mukpo, had been working with chief medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman. NBC News is flying Mukpo and the entire team back to the U.S. so Mukpo can be treated and the team can be quarantined for 21 days.

Snyderman told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that she and the rest of her crew have shown no signs of the disease and have taken precautions while covering the outbreak, including washing their hands with bleach.

The crew are quarantining themselves as a precaution.

Ashoka Mukpo, the freelance cameraman diagnosed with Ebola while working for NBC News in Liberia, was there because he cared so deeply about the country, his mother told NECN on Friday.

"Ashoka feels tremendously connected to the Liberian people, and really, after coming home from his work there this summer, when he heard about the extent of the Ebola outbreak, he felt compelled to go back," his mother Diana Mukpo told NECN from her Providence home. "He wanted to document the impact that this is having socially and economically."

Mukpo, 33, is being treated in the Liberian capital of Monrovia until he can be returned to the United States on Sunday. He will be treated at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where he is expected to arrive early next week and will be treated by the same team that treated Dr. Rick Sacra.

Chad Bilyeu, a friend and former classmate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., told NECN about the men’s shared passion for hip-hip and about Mukpo’s desire to help people. They had recently kept in touch on social media.

"Ashoka's like a brother," Bilyeu said. “I just always knew him as a very thoughtful, caring person. I saw that the studies, and his interest in Africa, was very altruistic."

After Ashoka Mukpo began showing symptoms of Ebola, he quarantined himself and was tested at a Doctors Without Borders clinic in Monrovia. The U.S. State Department is to fly him to the United States on Sunday, Diana Mukpo said. He is in the early stages of the disease, she said.

"There's no way to feel alright about it. It's incredibly stressful," she said. "We're getting him the best medical care we can, but it's only stress and anxiety for all of us."

She and her husband, Dr. Mitchell Levy, have been speaking with their son throughout the day, she said.

Ashoka Mukpo was hired on Tuesday as a second cameraman for NBC News Chief Medical Editor and Correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman in Liberia.

The NBC team, which had shared a work space, vehicles and equipment, also are returning to the United States and will quarantine and monitor themselves, Snyderman said. But she said everyone had taken strict precautions against the illness and she thought the risk of the others becoming sick was extremely low.

The cameraman is the second New Englander to be diagnosed with Ebola after Dr. Sacra, who is recovering at his home in Holden, Massachusetts. Sacra was also treated at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

NECN will have more as this story develops.

Several cars were involved in a crash on Interstate 8 near Hotel Circle Friday morning, bringing traffic to a temporary halt during the busy morning commute.

The accident happened around 8:45 a.m. at I-8 and Taylor Street and involved four vehicles, California Highway Patrol officials said. A SigAlert was issued for about an hour.

Witnesses said some of the cars were completely destroyed. At least one vehicle - an SUV -- rolled over on its side, ending up badly damaged and pushed up against a railing. Two people were trapped inside.

By 9:45 a.m., CHP officials said the accident had been cleared, with passengers sustaining some minor injuries. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Alliance Realty Partners LLC has proposed a new mixed-use residential project with 269 dwelling units in downtown San Diego’s East Village neighborhood.

According to documents filed with Civic San Diego, the city’s downtown project oversight agency, the
development named 16th & Broadway is planned for a 50,000-square-foot site bounded by Broadway,
16th, 17th and E streets. It would include a seven-story, 85-foot-tall building containing the residential units and 5,100 square feet of retail, with 343 parking spaces on four levels.

The project will require a development permit from Civic San Diego. Preliminary designs for the project are tentatively scheduled to be reviewed by the Downtown Community Planning Council’s pre-design subcommittee on Oct. 6, and Civic San Diego’s real estate committee on Oct. 8

The Business Journal is the premier business publication in San Diego. Every day online and each Monday in print, the Business Journal reports on how local business operate and why businesses leaders make the decisions they do. Every story is a dose of insight into how to run a better, more efficient, more profitable business.

The Ebola outbreak has infected 7,000 people in Africa and has killed over 3,500 since March, NBC News reported.

Doctors, organizations and missionary groups have been working hard in West African countries like Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Gambia, Senegal and Mali. Outside support in these countries has been critical to help contain the Ebola virus, but crowded hospitals and lack of medical supplies has made caring for patients and preventing further infection difficult.

Here is a list of top organizations where Americans can donate to help Ebola patients and aids in Africa.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF or Doctors Without Borders)

MSF has been responding to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa since March and has 3,058 staff working to treat patients in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal. Donate here.

Samaritan's Purse

Samaritan's Purse has been responding to the outbreak in Liberia by creating and managing Community Care Centers in disease-ridden areas. The missionary group also trains caregivers, distributes kits and runs public education campaigns about prevention and control. Donate here.

UNICEF, UN Foundtation, World Food Programme

To prevent further spreading of the Ebola virus, UNICEF is using mobile messaging and communication campaigns to counter misinformation about how the virus is transmitted in Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Donate here. The United Nations Foundation is providing technical assistance, funding, supplies and personnel in countries across West Africa. Donate here or text EBOLA to 27722 and give $10. The World Food Programme is working to deliver food to Ebola patients and family, along with assisting with logistics, helping other organizations to get aid workers and getting critical supplies. Donate here.

Save the Children

Save the Children trains teachers, health workers, nurses and local organizations in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea on prevention measures and distributes protective kids and essential medical equipment. Donate here.

The American Red Cross

The group has already collected $2.8 million from the Paul G Allen foundation. The Red Cross focuses on managing outbreaks and increasing public awareness. Donate here.

International Medical Corps

The group has been providing health support in Liberia since 1999. International Medical Corps treats patients and delivers humanitarian support to the West African region. Donate here.

For more, check out the U.S. Agency for International Development's list of organizations working to fight Ebola.

A small fire burned on Camp Pendleton Friday, scorching at least five acres on base, officials confirmed.

Camp Pendleton Fire Department officials said the blaze began Thursday afternoon with reports of smoke stemming from the impact areas of Rangers 217 and 219. Smoke could be seen near De Luz Housing, Mainside, the Naval Weapons Station and in the community of Fallbrook.

Officials said there was no immediate threat to structures. By Thursday evening, the fire was smoldering and being closely monitored by crews in case it kicked up.

By 10:45 a.m. Friday, Camp Pendleton officials confirmed the fire was still burning and had scorched approximately five acres. Again, they said no structures were threatened.

Smoke was still visible Friday from parts of north San Diego and south Orange and Riverside counties.

This fire comes amid an early October heat wave that is bringing hot, dry and windy conditions to San Diego County. As these conditions arrive, fire danger is heightened. Cal Fire has extra crews and equipment on standby.

The National Weather Service has also issued a heat advisory for the county effective through Sunday night.
 

After a rash of home break-ins, San Diego police are warning Carmel valley residents to be on alert for burglars targeting their neighborhoods.

San Diego Police are investigating four break-ins that happened in broad daylight. All four homes were hit on Sept. 23.

In each case the burglars made sure the homeowners were gone then blasted through a back door or window. Each break-in was within just a mile or two of one another.

“I received a frantic call from my wife indicating we were possibly burglarized,” one victims told NBC 7.

This victim, who wished not to be identified by name, said the burglars must have been watching the home well before the break-in.

They waited for the family to leave before smashing through the patio sliding glass door. It's boarded up for now, the resident said.

The victims said the burglars did a thorough search of each room. They bypassed expensive, more difficult items to sell and took small valuable family heirlooms instead.

In all four burglaries, the suspects targeted high-end jewelry and prescription drugs, investigators said. They ransacked the homes and took their time searching.

Like many of the residents in Carmel Valley, the burglary victims were taken by surprise.

This is the type of crime not often seen in the community.

“It’s more of an eye opener that while we live in a nice community, crime is pervasive. It is in our area and our neighbors and our neighborhood watch group need to have more often and more detailed communication so that everybody understands to keep our eyes open,” the victim added.

Police are asking residents to be vigilant and to watch out for each other, especially if you know your neighbor will be away for the day or longer. All suspicious activity should be reported to officials.
 

A fire was deliberately set at a home in Santee Thursday evening and now deputies are looking for the suspects behind the arson crime.

According to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the fire broke out at a home in the 10300 block of Prospect Avenue just before 5:10 p.m. No injuries were reported.

After investigating, detectives from the Bomb and Arson Unit determined the fire was set on purpose. However, no suspects were immediately arrested.

Detectives are now asking for the public’s help to identify the suspect or suspects responsible for the arson. They’re asking anyone who spotted a suspicious person or vehicle in the area near the residence to come forward with the details.

Investigators said they’re especially interested in any suspicious sightings between 4:30 p.m. and 5:08 p.m. near the home, which is located on the northeast corner of Prospect and Cottonwood avenues.

Anyone with information should call the Sheriff’s Department at (858) 565-5200 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
 

A 28-year-old woman and her boyfriend have been arrested on suspicion of a string of home burglaries in Spring Valley and a robbery and shooting in Little Italy in August.

Deanna Rodriguez and her 19-year-old boyfriend, Richard Fox, were arrested as part of a joint investigation by San Diego police and San Diego sheriff’s deputies.

Deputies and police officers served a search warrant at the couple’s home Thursday in the 4500 block of F Street in San Diego and recovered some items believed to be stolen in four home burglaries in Spring Valley.

Officers also found evidence they said linked the couple to a robbery and shooting in Little Italy on Aug. 1.

Police said the shooting happened at about 9:30 p.m. in the 700 block of West Date Street, where three women were standing on the sidewalk.

They were confronted by a female stranger, who brandished a gun and demanded the women’s purses.

Before the women could respond, the woman opened fire, shooting two of the victims, who are sisters.

The sisters were rushed to nearby hospitals and survived, police said.

The suspect was seen getting side a minivan driven by a man.

Rodriguez and Fox were booked in jail on charges related to both alleged crimes.

NBC 7 reached out to the shooting victims' father, who said the women are relieved about the arrest. They are still traumatized over the shooting, he said.