Story Archive

Dinnertime Surprise

A Spring Valley, Calif., family was preparing dinner when San Diego County sheriff’s deputies surrounded the home. “So I go outside to the door and they tell me to stick my hand through the bar and come on out and follow the voice and the light, and as soon as I get out they handcuff me,” Willie Houston said. The deputies, guns drawn, ordered the whole family out. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, there’s food on the stove, [and] my grandbaby is upstairs,’” said his wife, Christine. “And then all of sudden all hell breaks loose; all the smoke started coming out of the house.” A kitchen fire trapped two women and the 7-year-old granddaughter on an upper floor, authorities said, and the deputies retrieved everyone with no injuries. “We could’ve lost everything last night,” said Willie, who said the authorities could have handled matters better. But the incident began with an armed robbery, and a witness said the robber, who was not caught that night, “might” have fled into the Houston’s home. The family claimed the sheriff’s department promised to pay for the damage, but a department spokeswoman denied that. (AC/KGTV San Diego, San Diego Union-Tribune) ...Since it’s the government, it doesn’t have to be responsible.