Vehicle stolen from soldier in dunes recovered from Mexico
BY JEFFREY GAUTREAUX
Apr 26, 2005
After almost a month in a Mexican impound yard, a vehicle that was stolen at gunpoint from a Yuma soldier was brought home Monday.
A 1997 Ford Explorer owned by Matthew Sharrar, a specialist with the California Army National Guard who returned from a deployment to Iraq on March 15, was brought back on a trailer Monday by Matthew Sharrar and his father, Flash Sharrar. The vehicle was stolen during an armed robbery March 27 in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area.
Matthew Sharrar had purchased the vehicle — in cash, with much of his combat pay — only two weeks prior to the robbery. The vehicle he saw Monday was much different from the one he purchased.
It was heavily damaged: three tires were flat, there were at least two bullet holes in it, the stereo had been stolen and the windshield was smashed.
Despite the damage and the cost to recover it, Flash Sharrar said it was worth it — because of principle. "Leaving it there would be like leaving my son on the battlefield," he said.
On Thursday, Flash Sharrar said he and his son spent 2 hours at the American Consulate in Tijuana trying to straighten out the paperwork to get the vehicle. They were forced to enlist the help of volunteers to translate all of the documents into Spanish and then have them notarized, he said.
"We did all that and then the federales said they didn't have the vehicle," Flash Sharrar said.
Flash Sharrar said he tried the Mexicali Police and the Federal Preventive Police while looking for the vehicle. After another trip to Mexico on Monday, the documents were signed, and the two were sent to a tow yard 40 miles south of Calexico, according to him.
"I paid $527, and we got an escort to the impound yard," Flash Sharrar said. "It took a half-hour to find it. I started it and drove it onto the trailer."
At the border, Flash Sharrar said the vehicle was released by the Calexico Police Department so it could be brought back into the United States.
"It's just nice to have it back," Matthew Sharrar said. "I did pay for it."
While the custom stereo was stolen and one of the rims has a bullet hole in it, Matthew Sharrar believed that the engine and drive train could still be salvaged.
He used the rest of his combat pay for the down payment on the 2000 Nissan Frontier he is currently driving.
The Explorer was insured only for liability, not theft, Flash Sharrar said.
Flash Sharrar said regardless of the condition of the vehicle, he was going to get it back to prove it could be done and to get it on U.S. soil, where he said it belongs.
Last week, Mexican authorities released a suspect who was believed to have been involved in the robbery, according to the Imperial County Sheriff's Office. The suspect was arrested after Matthew Sharrar's vehicle was crashed in a high-speed chase near Los Algodones, Baja Calif.
In response to the incident in the dunes, Flash Sharrar started a border watch program called the Yuma Patriots. The group has already done some small patrols and is planning for larger patrols near the border in the future.
Flash Sharrar said the group might chop the top off of the Explorer and turn it into a vehicle for patrolling the border.
Getting the vehicle back did not rekindle any more memories of the night of the robbery for Matthew Sharrar.
"I think about that night all the time," he said.
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Jeffrey Gautreaux can be reached at
jgautreaux@yumasun.com or 539-6858.
Yet our california tax dollars are used to print the whole range of government forms, ballots, etc in spanish (& a half dozen other languages) & provide translators for spanish speaking criminals gratis - no charge.
Are we suckers or what.
After reading you first post, I scrolled down and found the story. I guess I should rad all the replies before I jump the gun.