Sedan disguised as SDG&E vehicle can't fool Border Patrol

By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

2:46 p.m. August 14, 2008

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Gas & Electric logo on the doors of the white Ford Taurus looked authentic enough, but it still couldn't fool Border Patrol agents in the backcountry.
When they searched the sedan Tuesday morning in Campo, they found 20 bundles of marijuana, about 223 pounds worth, in the trunk. The 28-year-old woman driving the car was arrested.

Agents first spotted the bogus service vehicle at Forrest Gate and Sheridan roads near Campo, about 50 miles east of San Diego. When they tried to pull the driver over on Buckman Springs Road, she immediately made a U-turn and headed back toward the border, but crashed into thick brush, a Border Patrol spokesman said.

She then left the car and tried to run into Mexico, but the agents caught her first, the spokesman.

What prompted the agents' suspicions?

The first giveaway was the car itself, a Ford Taurus. The utility company usually use trucks. Next, when they did a radio check of the Taurus' license plate, the plates were registered to a Chevrolet Cavalier. Finally, a closer look revealed that the plates themselves were counterfeit.
When agents let one of their dogs take a sniff around the car trunk, it was “GAME OVER.â€