Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Sprinter cameras catch nighttime thief at transit stop

The Dodge Challenger and the faux leather jacket.

Kevin Waddell reportedly has nine convictions already in San Diego County. - Image by Bob Weatherston
Kevin Waddell reportedly has nine convictions already in San Diego County.

On Friday, January 4 Jennifer parked her Dodge Challenger at a transit station in Oceanside, on El Camino Real. She was careful to park her two-door coupe directly under a surveillance camera, and then she took the Sprinter to Carlsbad, where she worked.

She didn’t get back to her car until Saturday morning, January 5, and she was crushed to see the driver’s side window on her pretty coupe smashed. And her black, faux-leather jacket which she had left on the front passenger seat was missing. There was damage around the top of the car doors, above the windows; there were dents and scratches, and metal was exposed where paint was missing.

Because she had to be somewhere, Jennifer got into her damaged car and drove away. She called Oceanside police that same morning to give them a vehicle-burglary-report, over the phone.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Just before midnight on January 4, a transit employee watching a "roving monitor" could see a suspicious man approached the vehicle. He went back and forth to the vehicle for thirteen minutes, until 12:01 a.m., one minute into January 5.

“At one point, he opens the trunk of the vehicle,” the transit worker observed. “Another time, he was inside the vehicle with a light.” The suspicious man also looked underneath the vehicle, repeatedly. The employee zoomed in and looked carefully at the man; she studied his clothing and his shoes and the bike he had with him.

That same morning, January 5, about 10 o’clock, the transit worker saw the same man — this time on the live cameras. He came back to the Sprinter station on El Camino Real, this time it looked like he was buying a ticket at the vending machine. The employee said she was sure it was the same man, “right down to the shoes.”

Oceanside police were quickly contacted.

Oceanside police officer Jay Woods said he was actually on the phone with Jennifer, taking her vehicle-burglary-report, when he was informed by someone else at the station that a suspect for the same break-in was now at the same transit station.

Cops were kept informed as they rolled to the scene, and their suspect got onto a west-bound train, so they went to the next station on the route, that was on Crouch Street.

When officers first spoke with 55-year-old Kevin Eugene Waddell, he told them the black leather jacket in the bag on his bicycle belonged to his girlfriend. Later he admitted breaking into the Dodge and stealing the jacket. And he said he used a screwdriver, probably that’s what left the marks. Officers found a hypodermic needle in his backpack, and Waddell admitted that he stole things because he “needed money for drugs."

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
Kevin Waddell reportedly has nine convictions already in San Diego County. - Image by Bob Weatherston
Kevin Waddell reportedly has nine convictions already in San Diego County.

On Friday, January 4 Jennifer parked her Dodge Challenger at a transit station in Oceanside, on El Camino Real. She was careful to park her two-door coupe directly under a surveillance camera, and then she took the Sprinter to Carlsbad, where she worked.

She didn’t get back to her car until Saturday morning, January 5, and she was crushed to see the driver’s side window on her pretty coupe smashed. And her black, faux-leather jacket which she had left on the front passenger seat was missing. There was damage around the top of the car doors, above the windows; there were dents and scratches, and metal was exposed where paint was missing.

Because she had to be somewhere, Jennifer got into her damaged car and drove away. She called Oceanside police that same morning to give them a vehicle-burglary-report, over the phone.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Just before midnight on January 4, a transit employee watching a "roving monitor" could see a suspicious man approached the vehicle. He went back and forth to the vehicle for thirteen minutes, until 12:01 a.m., one minute into January 5.

“At one point, he opens the trunk of the vehicle,” the transit worker observed. “Another time, he was inside the vehicle with a light.” The suspicious man also looked underneath the vehicle, repeatedly. The employee zoomed in and looked carefully at the man; she studied his clothing and his shoes and the bike he had with him.

That same morning, January 5, about 10 o’clock, the transit worker saw the same man — this time on the live cameras. He came back to the Sprinter station on El Camino Real, this time it looked like he was buying a ticket at the vending machine. The employee said she was sure it was the same man, “right down to the shoes.”

Oceanside police were quickly contacted.

Oceanside police officer Jay Woods said he was actually on the phone with Jennifer, taking her vehicle-burglary-report, when he was informed by someone else at the station that a suspect for the same break-in was now at the same transit station.

Cops were kept informed as they rolled to the scene, and their suspect got onto a west-bound train, so they went to the next station on the route, that was on Crouch Street.

When officers first spoke with 55-year-old Kevin Eugene Waddell, he told them the black leather jacket in the bag on his bicycle belonged to his girlfriend. Later he admitted breaking into the Dodge and stealing the jacket. And he said he used a screwdriver, probably that’s what left the marks. Officers found a hypodermic needle in his backpack, and Waddell admitted that he stole things because he “needed money for drugs."

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Trump names local supporter new Border Czar

Another Brick (Suit) in the Wall
Next Article

Southern California Asks: 'What Is Vinivia?' Meet the New Creator-First Livestreaming App

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader