The attorney for a former crime lab technician accused in in the brutal murder of a teenage girl says her client was innocent.

Earlier this week, Kevin Brown was named a suspect in the brutal murder of 14-year-old Claire Hough in 1984. Detectives said they were preparing to make an arrest when Brown, 62, was found dead of an apparent suicide at Cuymaca State Park Oct. 21. He apparently hanged himself with no note left behind.

Noted San Diego attorney Gretchen Von Helm said despite what police say, they were not about to arrest her client and had she been given the chance, she has no doubt Kevin Brown would have been proven innocent at trial.

“Dead men are easy to convict. They are easy to blame,” Von Helm said.

With a DNA match and the suicide of suspect Kevin Brown, at least in the court of public opinion, the case of Claire Hough is closed.

However, Von Helm said the police’s only evidence, her clients DNA, was detected on swabs taken from the victim's clothes and skin.

Brown was a criminologist working in the police lab that processed that evidence. Von Helm said the risk of cross contamination was high.

“Even if he didn't handle the case, it’s possible because they are all set up next to each other. There was an open table. They open air-dried the swabs,” she said.

Von Helms said Brown passed an independent polygraph test given by a retired San Diego Police Department polygrapher.

“That's very powerful evidence that someone has spoken the truth when someone says I didn't do it,” she said.

Claire Hough was beaten and strangled to death in the summer of 1984 on Torrey Pines Beach. Her body was mutilated. The attacker cut off one breast.

“I am able to separate the case and what she was when she was still with us,” Hough’s father Samuel said.

Brown's alleged involvement makes little sense to Samuel because police also named a second suspect, Ronald Tatro. Tatro was once convicted of trying to abduct another young girl.

The suspects are eight years apart in age. Police said they have established no other connection between the two men

“It just seems very unlikely that the two of them are such diverse characters that they would have been together,” Samuel said.

Von Helm said the suspect’s suicide should not be interpreted as guilt. She said Brown suffered anxiety and deep depression.

“The pressure and stress brought to bear by this investigation contributed to his demise absolutely,” Von Helm said.

Von Helm said Wallace Wheeler, who reported discovering Hough's body, was also a suspect early on in the investigation.

Wheeler also killed himself by jumping off the 13th floor balcony of his residence four years after Hough's murder.
 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture detected the first Bay Area case of the Asian citrus psyllid this month, revealing a pest that causes a deadly disease for citrus trees, and leaves its oranges, limes and the like bitter and inedible.

As a result, the department is quarantining an area in Santa Clara County, where the pest was found earlier this month, according to a department news release issued on Thursday. The 99-square-mile area under quarantine is bordered by Alum Rock Park in the north, by Santa Teresa Boulevard in the south, by North Monroe Street in the west and by Joseph D. Grant County Park in the east.

The quarantine means that no one can move any citrus or curry trees from the area, and all citrus fruit must be cleaned of leaves and stems before moving out of area.

Because the infested area is small, the CDFA is hoping to eliminate the pest rather than simply control its spread. There is no cure once the tree is infected. Humans are not affected by this disease, according to Steve Lyle, spokesman for the Department of Agriculture.

Joel Nelsen, president, California Citrus Mutual, a nonprofit citrus growers association, echoed Lyle's comments about the impact on homeowners in affected area. Nelsen said homeowners will be asked to help stop the spread of the pest before it infects trees.

The pest quarantines are now in place in Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Ventura, and portions of Fresno, Kern, and San Luis Obispo counties. But only one case of the disease has so far been found in California - once, in 2012 on a residential property in Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles County.

The pest was first found in the United States in 1998 in Palm Beach County, Florida, according to information on CDFA's website. The Asian Citrus Psyllids were first found in California Aug. 27, 2008.

Residents in the area who think they may have seen ACP or symptoms of HLB on their citrus trees are urged to call CDFA’s Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899. To watch a video about the disease, click here.

Bay City News contributed to this report.

Dr. Craig Spencer, the physician being treated for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital, has entered the next phase of the illness: the onset of gastrointestinal symptoms, health officials said.

To combat his symptoms, he received a plasma transfusion from the second American Ebola patient Nancy Writebol on Saturday. The blood donation was confirmed by the Christian organization, SIM, that Writebol worked with before she was admitted to Emory University Hospital in August.

Authorities updated Spencer's condition as his fiancee, Morgan Dixon, returned to their Hamilton Heights apartment, where she will remain under quarantine. Dixon had been quarantined at Bellevue, though she had not developed any sign of the illness. Workers in protective gear cleaned the apartment on 147th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue earlier in the day.

Spencer is awake, communicating and undergoing plasma and antiviral therapies, treatments that have been used to treat Ebola patients at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and at the Nebraska Medical Center, city health officials said in a statement.

Because Spencer caught the virus early, it was expected that his condition might deteriorate at first.

"People tend to get worse before they get better," said Dr. Mary Bassett, the commissioner of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "So he remains in stable condition but we are aware that this is the natural course of this disease." 

Dixon's family said they have not been in physical contact with their daughter and future son-in-law since Spencer returned from volunteering with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea. 

"We have confidence in the medical care Craig is receiving and we are hoping for a complete recovery," the family said in statement.

As Spencer fought the disease in hospital bed, Mayor Bill de Blasio and city officials returned on Saturday to many of the spots the doctor visited before he fell ill.  De Blasio, First Lady Chirlane McCray and Bassett had lunch at The Meatball Shop, where Spencer ate two days before his diagnosis. 

"At 6 o'clock last evening we opened up the doors and I was a little nervous to see what would happen," said Daniel Holzman, the owner of Greenwich Avenue eatery, addressing the press alongside the mayor. "But we had a line down the block and we filled up immediately and we were busy all night last night."

De Blasio reiterated that New Yorkers are not at risk from Ebola and do not need to alter their daily routines.

"It is a rare instance in which Ebola is transmitted," the mayor said. "It requires, bluntly, intimate contact."

Spencer's work in Guinea included direct contact with sick people: taking their temperature, following the evolution of their cases, taking their vital signs and ensuring the clinic was properly maintained.

He was hospitalized at Bellevue Thursday, six days after returning from Guinea. Health officials said he began feeling tired on Tuesday, spent a day out in the city on Wednesday, and then alerted authorities when he developed a fever Thursday morning.

Experts have repeatedly assured the public that there is little chance that Spencer spread the virus prior to developing symptoms, but his case prompted the governors of New York, New Jersey and Illinois on Friday to order a mandatory quarantine for any arriving international travelers who had contact with Ebola patients in three West African countries.  

The first health care worker to face that mandatory quarantine after arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport, criticized the process, calling it "a frenzy of fear disorganization (and) fear."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized Spencer, saying he should have stayed home until any danger period for the disease had passed. The virus can hide in the body for up to 21 days before a person develops symptoms.

"Dr. Spencer is a valued fellow and was a volunteer and did great work, but that was a voluntary quarantine situation for 21 days. He's a doctor and even he didn't follow the voluntary quarantine, let's be honest," Cuomo said.

Neither the U.S. Centers for Disease Control nor Doctors without Borders ask health care workers returning from the Ebola hot zone to quarantine themselves, but they do recommend that they monitor their temperature at least twice a day. Spencer was complying with that guidance, officials have said.

The California Highway Patrol officer accused of stealing explicit photos from a young woman suspected of driving under the influence says it was all part of a CHP "game," court documents show.

Investigators say CHP officer Sean Harrington discovered and forwarded to himself six explicit photos while booking a 23-year-old San Ramon woman in August. The photos depict the woman, who is not being identified, in a bikini and in various states of undress.

Harrington says racy pictures were often stolen and shared with other cops, according to lawyer Rick Madsen, who confirmed that search warrant documents implicate more officers in the investigation.

According to the documents, several officers made vulgar and dehumanizing comments to each other about photos taken from the phones of arrestees.

Madsen said he believes the evidence shows a pattern and practice of stealing confidential pictures and unlawfully distributing them.

"This is the worst case scenario come true,” Madsen said. “This sworn police officer illegally obtained Jane Doe's personal photographs and illegally distributed them at her expense. It's dehumanizing and it's criminal and it warrants felony charges."

The Contra Costa District Attorney's Office is investigating, but so far nobody has been charged in the case.

The CHP says the five-year veteran based in Dublin has been assigned to desk duties during the probe.

A 16-year-old learning to drive killed a 12-year-old boy Friday evening after accelerating out of her driveway in Lewisville, Texas.

According to the Lewisville Police Department, the girl's father told her to start the car and was teaching her basic car operations in a mobile home park in the 1700 block of Bunker Hill Lane.

Officers said the girl placed the 4-door Nissan Sentra in reverse and accelerated out of the driveway. She crossed the street striking 12-year-old Eric Lozano and his 10-year-old cousin. Lozano was pinned against a home after being hit.

The Lewisville Fire and Police Department were dispatched to the accident at 6:37 p.m. Officers said Lozano was transported to the Medical Center of Lewisville where he was then pronounced deceased. The 10-year old was not seriously injured and was released from the hospital Friday night.

The girl did not have a driver's license and the case is under investigation.

A bear was spotted running across the lanes of the 210 Freeway in Duarte early Saturday morning, the California Highway Patrol said.

The bear sighting was reported around 3 a.m. CHP officials were able to chase the bear off the freeway and into the brush on the side of the freeway, according to California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife official Adam Smith.

Smith and his colleagues arrived at the scene around 4 a.m. and were able to tranquilize the bear.

“He went down within five minutes. It went pretty smooth,” Smith said. “We’re going to take him back to the foothills.”

According to Smith, the bear is likely a male, approximately 150 pounds and in “great condition.”

Two La Jolla surfers are on a mission to save a small town in Liberia from Ebola.

Daniel Hopkins and Sean Brody opened the first surfing retreat in a town called Robertsport.

After two years in Liberia, they saw a lot of success. But now, they say the Ebola outbreak threatens to end it all.

“With Ebola, things have changed substantially. Things are a lot more chaotic,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins watched the business he helped create in Liberia nearly collapse after the outbreak.

“We went out there and saw a lot of opportunity within the community. We had great waves but we also saw opportunity to help the local people and bring tourism to Liberia and use surfing as the catalyst,” he said.

Hopkins and Brody created “Kwepuhna,” a place where travelers could stay, catch waves, spearfish and explore the rain forests while employing a staff of 15 local Liberians.

“Things picked up and towards the end, there was hardly a day went by that we didn’t have people staying with us,” Hopkins said.

After two years, the San Diego surfer said fell in love with the country and its people.

“Liberia, it’s one of the poorest countries, but the amount of sharing the people exhibit is mind-blowing,” he said. “How they share what little they have but share it regardless.”

However, since the outbreak, the travelers have stopped coming. Hopkins was forced to leave Liberia and return to La Jolla, but he said can’t forget the home he left behind.

“You know when you spend that much time with people, they become your family,” he said. “What I do have control over is raising awareness to see that they don’t suffer through this.”

He has launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to keep his staff on the payroll as they ride out the crisis. His goal is to raise $25,000, roughly a six-month salary for his staff of 15. Hopkins hopes to one day come back to the place he calls his second home.

“If we don’t step up and help, we are only going to see the picture get worse,” he said.

As of Oct. 25, more than 2,705 people in Liberia have died from Ebola, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

America’s first cat café opened its doors Saturday in Oakland.

At the Cat Town Café, people can buy a latte and an hour of playtime with adoptable felines.

The owners hope this new business will help find homes for East Bay cats.

Internationally, cat cafés are popular in urban areas. This new venture in Oakland was the first to master the logistics and health code approvals in the U.S.

A similar idea is in the works in San Francisco.

The Cat Town Café features an area called the Cat Zone — where cats will roam freely and are available for adoption.

Walk-ins are welcome if space permits, but for a $10 donation, you can make a Cat Zone reservation ahead of time.

 

Cat Town and OAS volunteer Katie K. plays with Glynda, the first @cattowncafe cat!

A photo posted by Cat Town Oakland (@cattownoakland) on Oct 10, 2014 at 8:34pm PDT

The UC San Diego Medical Center has been named one of five California hospitals ready to treat Ebola, state officials announced Friday.

UCSD, along with the UC Medical Centers in Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles and San Francisco, are equipped to provide in-patient care for people diagnosed with Ebola, according to a joint news release from the University of California and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH.)

UCSD and the other UC Medical Centers will only treat new Ebola cases should any arise in California. Ebola patients flying into the U.S. will not be brought to these hospitals, according to the news release.

The safety and preparedness of American hospitals was questioned after two Texas nurses contracted the virus from a patient.

“It is our intent that only health care workers who are members of a core designated group or who volunteer to do so will provide care to confirmed Ebola patients,” said Dr. John Stobo, UC Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and Services, in the release.

Other hospitals are also expected to be named “priority hospitals” for Ebola treatment.

As of Oct. 25, more than 10,000 Ebola cases had been reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.) Four cases of Ebola were diagnosed in the U.S., but there have been no confirmed cases in California.

San Diego State University issued a warning to students after a burglary was reported early Saturday morning near campus.

The incident happened around 1 a.m. in the 5600 block of Mary Lane Drive, south of the SDSU campus. According to the crime bulletin, a woman woke up and discovered a man inside her home trying to steal her laptop. There was a brief struggle, and the suspect drove off in a car.

The victim suffered minor cuts and bruises, according to the university.

The getaway car is described as a gray four-door sedan, possibly a Mazda, with temporary plates and paint removed from the right rear door.

Anyone with information is asked to call San Diego police at 619-531-2000 or Crime Stoppers at 619-235-8477.
 

A man apparently shot and killed his wife and then himself inside a San Clemente store on Saturday afternoon, sheriff's officials said.

A female employee called 911 about 2 p.m. to report that someone had been shot inside Bliss Boutique, a clothing and gift shop in the 100 block of Avenida Del Mar, the Orange County Sheriff's Department said. The bodies were found about 40 minutes later when authorities made their way inside.

No one was sought in connection with the shooting and no arrests were made, deputies said. A handgun was found inside the store, investigators said.

Authorities identifed the deceased as John Patrick Dillard, 59, and Cynthia Jean Rosier, 64, of San Clemente. Sheriff's officials said they were married.

Witnesses described the frantic moments after the shooting that prompted a response from SWAT team members.

"The girl working at Bliss came running out yelling that there were six shots fired, and that her boss was taken into the back room by her husband and they were in an ugly divorce," said witness Jeff Chambers.

People who knew the man and woman were stunned by the killings.

"Half my wardrobe is from there and it's kind of like having your childhood disrupted in a sense," said customer Alexa Corbett. "She didn't deserve this, she was such a good woman."

"I've shopped their for over 10 years and I saw her earlier this week, I can't believe it," said Melanie Flaherty, who was at the scene.

Calls to the business were not answered.

Willian Avila contributed to this report.

A military vehicle crashed Sunday morning near Camp Pendleton, halting traffic on a major San Diego County freeway.

The accident happened around 10 a.m. on southbound Interstate 5 near the Aliso Creek rest area, just south of Las Pulgas and about five miles north of Oceanside.

The California Highway Patrol issued a Sig Alert. All lanes of I-5 South in the area were closed around 10:30 a.m. so a medical helicopter could land on the freeway.

Around 12:15 p.m., Caltrans announced that all lanes had reopened.

It is unclear how many people were injured and what caused the vehicle to crash.

Check back for updates on this developing story.
 

Preliminary tests indicate a 5-year-old Bronx boy who was evaluated for Ebola after developing a fever following a trip to West Africa does not have the deadly virus, health officials say.

The boy, who had returned to the U.S. from Guinea 36 hours ago, was transported to Bellevue Hospital Center from his family's Bronx home Sunday night after experiencing symptoms, sources familiar with the situation said. The hospital said in a statement the child did not appear feverish when first examined, but developed a temperature Monday morning. He was tested for Ebola out of an abundance of caution given his recent travel history and symptoms.

On a conference call Monday afternoon, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said the boy's "pattern of illness is not what we would expect to see in someone who has Ebola."

Samples will be sent to CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, for confirmation.

Bellevue was designated as the city’s go-to medical center for possible Ebola cases and is where Craig Spencer, the first New Yorker diagnosed with the disease, is being treated. Spencer contracted the virus while on an Ebola assignment for Doctors Without Borders in Guinea.

Health officials said Spencer was showing signs of improvement Sunday, a day after entering the next phase of the illness: the onset of gastrointestinal symptoms. To combat his symptoms, the doctor received a plasma transfusion from the second American Ebola patient Nancy Writebol on Saturday, which he tolerated well, said Health and Hospitals Corp. President Dr. Ram Raju.

Because Spencer was diagnosed with the virus in its early stages, it was expected that his condition would deteriorate at first.

"People tend to get worse before they get better," said Dr. Mary Bassett, the commissioner of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "So he remains in stable condition but we are aware that this is the natural course of this disease."

Spencer's fiancee and two friends who spent time with him before he got sick remain asymptomatic, de Blasio said.

On the heels of Spencer's diagnosis, Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie announced Friday that any health care workers who treated Ebola patients in West Africa would be required to be quarantined for 21 days. A nurse returning from Sierra Leone Friday was the first person quarantined under the new policy and denounced the way she was treated, saying she was made to feel like a criminal. The nurse, who tested negative for Ebola, is being discharged from the hospital Monday.

Amid criticism, Gov. Cuomo clarified the details of New York's mandatory quarantine Sunday, saying in a briefing with Mayor de Blasio that anyone who has had exposure to Ebola-infected patients but shows no symptoms will be asked to remain in their homes, not a hospital, for the 21-day period.

Health care workers will then visit the home unannounced twice a day to check their symptoms. Accommodations will be found for any health care worker without a place to stay.

Travelers returning from Ebola-stricken countries who did not have contact with a person infected with the virus and are asymptomatic would be handled on a case-by-case basis, the governor said.

At a minimum, health care workers would still visit their homes twice a day, but they wouldn't necessarily be confined to their homes for the virus' three-week incubation period.
"Some people will say we're being too cautious," Cuomo said. "I'll take that criticism because that's better than the alternative."

The governor added that employers would be contacted if the 21-day quarantine became an issue and that the state was looking to extend benefits to health care workers in these cases. The state will also pay for any lost wages if they are not paid by a volunteer organization.

Cuomo said health care workers will still be encouraged to help in West Africa, but that there must be a balance between the need for aid and the protection and public health of New Yorkers.

Health officials say the chances of the average New Yorker contracting Ebola are extremely slim. Ebola is spread by directly touching the bodily fluids of an infected person. It can't be contracted simply by being near someone who has Ebola, and the disease can only be spread by people who are extremely sick.
 

An Atlantic City woman will face charges after she allegedly threw her 1-month-old daughter into a bay and then jumped in the water.

Atlantic City Police received a call shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday after a group of fishermen standing near the Flagship Hotel on North Maine Avenue spotted a woman with a baby acting "unusual" near the inlet at Pacific Avenue.

"We saw the lady walking to the rocks with the baby," said Jose Matos. "So my nephew asked her where she was going with the baby. She didn't say anything and just kept walking."

According to the fishermen, the woman, later identified as 24-year-old Patricia Shurig, threw the infant into the bay and jumped in as well.

Two fishermen, Luis Ortiz of Egg Harbor Township, and Seth Perkins of Galloway Township, jumped into the water and managed to rescue the woman and her child.

"I said, 'I'm gonna go in for you but you can't panic and don't try to grab me,'" Ortiz said. "That's it. And I went in after her."

Thomas Bell, a retired Atlantic City firefighter who happened to be on the jetty at the time, performed CPR on the unresponsive infant and was able to revive her.

"The lady handed me the baby," Bell said. "I did two mouth breathes and turned her over and patted her on the back. She spit up a lot of water. Then I just ran down the jetty and gave her to the EMS people."

Both Shurig and her daughter, who investigators said was born last month, were taken to AtlantiCare. Officials have not yet revealed their conditions.

Ortiz was in tears as he reflected on the rescue.

"Why?" Ortiz asked. "What was going through that lady's mind to put herself and her child in danger like that?"

Shurig will be charged with aggravated assault with additional charges pending. She will be held on $100,000 bail.

For the second time in less than three weeks, armed robbers targeted the same McDonald's in northwest Miami-Dade.

Men donning Halloween masks burst into the fast-food restaurant near the Miami-Dade College North Campus around 6 a.m. Sunday morning.

"They just busted right in," restaurant patron Ashly Mulherin said. "Jumped over the counter, kicked the door on the other side and they were in."

Customers ordering breakfast were caught by surprise as a trio of masked men stormed inside.

"It was just crazy," said customer Jimmy Moran. "Just all of a sudden ran in there and just told everybody to get down."

Police are trying to figure out if this robbery is connected to the previous hold up three weeks ago, where a pair of robbers demanded money as a pregnant customer stood at the counter.

As the men rushed to make their escape, they may have left behind a critical clue.

"They tried to run out the side and they couldn't," Moran said. "They dropped a bullet along the way."

Police are urging anyone with information to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477).

A Clinton man woke up in the middle of the night to find a stranger sleeping next to him early Saturday.

Police arrested Tyler Sullivan, 22, of the Higganum section of Haddam, on charges including criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.

At 1:35 a.m., a man in a home on East Main Street heard the front door open and thought that it was his wife. He rolled over expecting it to be her, but instead saw an intruder he didn't know sleeping next to him. When the stranger wouldn't leave at the resident's request, the man called 911.

Sullivan was still in the man's bedroom when police arrived and was very drunk, according to police. He later told police that he forgot what happened and "thought he was at his mother's apartment in the same complex," police said in a news release.

Police charged Sullivan with first-degree criminal trespass and disorderly conduct and took him in a police cruiser to the station for processing.

He was released on a $1,000 surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Middlesex Superior Court in Middletown on Nov. 4.

A Pennsylvania food company over the weekend issued a recall of more than 31,000 pounds of chicken products that may contain a toxin.

The recalled products are Bell & Evans gluten free chicken breast nuggets (12 ounces) and Bell & Evans gluten free chicken breast (10.5 ounces), according to a press release from the Department of Agriculture.

The chicken products have Aug. 9, 2015, expiration dates. They were shipped to stores across the U.S.

The food may be contaminated with Staphylococcal bacteria, which may cause stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.

The reported contamination was discovered by the Colorado Department of Agriculture during a retail surveillance and sampling program.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush still "has not made a decision" about whether he'll run for president in 2016, a spokesperson said after the GOP politician's son seemed to suggest over the weekend that a bid is likely.

"Governor Bush has not yet made a decision on whether or not he will run in 2016. He will thoughtfully consider it following the mid-term elections, and make a decision late this year or in the early part of next year," Bush's spokesperson, Kristy Campbell, told NBC News.

But in an interview with ABC News' John Karl, son George P. Bush said his father is " still assessing it."

"I think it's -- it's more than likely that he's giving this a serious thought and moving -- and moving forward," George P. Bush said.

"More than likely that he'll run?" Karl asked.

"That he'll run. If you had asked me a few years back, I -- I would have said it was less likely," the younger Bush responded.

In an interview with Fox earlier this month, former President George W. Bush said he thinks his brother "wants to be president."

"Yes, I think he wants to be president," he said. "I think he'd be a great president. He understands what it's like to be president -- for not only the person running or serving, plus family," he said.

Jeb Bush, 61, was Florida's governor from 1999 to 2007. He has been popping up in recent ads supporting current Florida Gov. Rick Scott in his re-election bid.

It’s not even Halloween yet, and already, neighbors on North Bonita Street in Spring Valley were looking forward to seeing one particular home in all its Christmas glory.

“We love it. The whole neighborhood stops,” said Tina McKay. “It’s fantastic. You’ve never seen anything like this.”

It’s a spectacle of lights Mary Anne Flanagan and her partner have invested nearly two decades and thousands of dollars to deliver. But now, a majority of it is gone.

“We’re not going to be able to do the same thing this year,” she said.

Flanagan built a shed on her long-time friend and neighbor’s property to house the boxes and boxes of decorations. But she says some time in between her neighbor moving out, and new people moving in, the shed was broken into.

“I came running back here and opened the door and just started crying,” she said.

The loss was devastating, but Flanagan said it’s not a crime she or her neighbors will tolerate, nor will they allow it to limit their holiday spirit.

Already, friends are helping them rebuild their Christmas inventory.

Flanagan has filed a crime report with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, and has been scouring swap meets and garage sales for any sign of the stolen lights.

She hopes they turn up, but in the meantime, she’s working on making this year’s display just as beautiful as those of years past.

“I really, really, just, I love Christmas,” Flanagan said.