Thread: Returned soldier faces new danger here

Returned soldier faces new danger here

BY JEFFREY GAUTREAUX, STAFF WRITER
Mar 29, 2005

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A Yuman who came back from Iraq just two weeks ago was robbed at gunpoint Sunday night in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area.

Matthew Sharrar, 21, said he had a gun pointed at his head while thieves stole his 1997 Ford Explorer, $700 in cash and his cell phone.

The thieves are believed to have entered the country illegally and then fled back to Mexico. The robbery occurred at about 8:30 p.m. PST, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

"I wasn't too scared. It was more upsetting," Sharrar said. "To be terrorized in my own country, it's more upsetting."

Sharrar said a Lincoln Navigator pulled into a camp that was 50 yards away from the one he was in. About five people from the Navigator began to "get rough" with the campers. Sharrar said the Navigator was used to ram the trailer twice and shots were fired into it.

Those in Sharrar's camp called 911 and tried to hide. The thieves found him and cleaned out his pockets.

"They took off in my car, and then 20 minutes later the police finally showed up," Sharrar said.

Sharrar, a specialist with the California Army National Guard, was in Iraq for a year before returning March 15. He had purchased the vehicle after returning to Yuma.

El Centro sector Border Patrol spokeswoman Danielle Suarez said agents responded as soon as they received a call from California Highway Patrol.

"I can understand (him) being upset," Suarez said. "We always have agents out there. (If it took 20 minutes to respond) I can assure him there were other things going on, not necessarily more important, but they were tied up."

Matthew's father, Flash Sharrar, said Border Patrol agents were only three miles from the incident but slow to respond. Flash Sharrar said a woman at the camp was making calls to 911 as the incident was occurring, and he made calls once he was notified.

"Where were these (agents)?" Flash Sharrar said. "It could have been prevented. I know their radios are tied together."

Matthew Sharrar contends that the incident occurred in the Buttercup campground. He said he could see the freeway from where they were camped and were not close to the border.

However, Suarez said that according to Border Patrol reports, the robbery occurred southwest of Swingle's Hill, which is only a quarter of a mile from the border.

She said it would take only about 15 seconds by vehicle to get back across the border after making the robbery. And after such a traumatic incident, Suarez said time can slow down and make even a short response time "seem like forever."

Officer Joe Miller, CHP spokesman, said their office, Imperial County Sheriff's Office and Border Patrol searched the area, but it was believed that the suspects had already fled south. Miller said Mexican authorities were notified of the robbery.

The official report of the robbery was taken by ICSO, Miller said. Messages left with ICSO's Off-Highway Vehicle unit Monday were not returned.
Flash Sharrar said border security failed and that agents should have been monitoring the Navigator's entry. "I told (Matthew) he should stay in Iraq, it's safer," he said.

Suarez said with thousands of campers on the weekends, and many driving very close to the border, it is hard to know who is whom. "We have agents in that area all the time," she said. "We keep this area pretty beefed up, but on the weekends this is like a town. It would be pretty hard to see everything."

Agents could also have been tied up by medical calls, Suarez said.

All agreed that an armed robbery was out of the ordinary for that section of the dunes. Suarez said Border Patrol knows of no other recent armed robberies in the area, which is generally considered safe.

Flash Sharrar had kind words for the Yuma Police Department. He said they came to his home after the incident and kept patrol nearby overnight. He said his son stood as armed guard at the house all night.

Matthew Sharrar spent Monday buying another car, which he will have today. He said if he goes back to the dunes it will be in an area farther to the north.

Flash Sharrar, who has been closely involved with Operation Troop Comfort for those overseas, acknowledged the irony in his son going to Iraq to fight a war on terrorism only to forced to guard his own home. "(People) know how much I care for our troops," he said. "But we don't have border security. The border will be my next issue."

Jeffrey Gautreaux can be reached at
jgautreaux@yumasun.com or 539-6858.


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http://sun.yumasun.com/artman/publish/a ... _15706.php

Closing the borders is a crime prevention measure. Bush just thinks the crime illegals commit is no big deal, but we do.

I have no faith in the "Mexican Officials." They would probably try to
sell the vehicle back to him.