A witness jumped into action and stopped an attempted carjacker in his tracks at the Grover Beach train station.
26-year-old Sergio Deharo from Azusa California was arrested for attempting to carjack a women’s car Sunday morning and a nearby witness is the one to thank for stopping the theft.
At around 6:26 A.M., Grover Beach police officers responded to a call of a disturbance at the train station.
According to Grover PD, Deharo attempted to carjack a vehicle from a woman waiting at the train station. They said Deharo was able to get into the driver’s seat and start the vehicle.
Investigators said the woman tried to push Deharo away and even threw hot coffee at him, that is when a nearby witness heard the noise and decided to step in, taking Deharo out of the car and pinning him to the ground until police arrived.
Cherie Wais is the owner of the Monarch Grove Winery that sits right next to the train station. She said over the last eight years she has experienced an armed robbery and has only seen a handful of incidents involving cars being broken into and car crashes.
“It doesn’t really surprise me, but it has been a while since there’s been any issues," said Wais.
There are cameras surveilling the area and Grover PD said they were able to catch the incident that occurred today. This gives residents like Wais a sense of comfort.
“There’s lots of cameras and the police monitoring it and the police come through and check quiet often," said Wais.
Jongkeun Han visits the train station about twice a week and hearing about this incident causes alarm since he sometimes arrives early in the morning.
“At this time, around this time and sometimes you know very late at night at 11:50," said Han.
Deharo was arrested and is currently on parole as well. He was transported to the San Luis Obispo County jail and his bond is set at $150,000.
