Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Rosebud Ave Under SR2 Freeway: Looks Like A Stolen Car Torched

Photo: Eli Shamszadeh, April 11, 2016.  (Photos shot between 10:13 to 10:35 PM.)  It's disturbing when you try to turn the corner on the only access road to Corralitas and you find a truck on fire under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud Ave.  One neighbor left the hill at 9:50 PM, only to return 15-20 minutes later to this scene.

Texts and emails came in around 10:20PM as frustrated Corralitas neighbors heard what they thought was an accident, explosions and lots of black smoke. Neighbors called 911 before contacting me.   After I put out word to the Corralitas Neighborhood Watch list, more reports from neighbors and photos came in. 

Photo: Eli Shamszadeh, April 11, 2016.  Shamszadeh shot photos from a safe distance across Allesandro Street from the Rosebud underpass while he waited to get up the hill. 
Photo: Eli Shamszadeh, April 11, 2016.  According to another neighbor, LAFD rolled up on Rosebud without sirens.  We know it's a torched stolen car because 1. there is no parking anytime under the SR 2 Freeway on Rosebud, and 2. this used to happen almost weekly in the early 1990s.  It's been so long since we've had one, at least one longtime neighbor on the 2 Freeway side of the hill thought it sounded like a horrible accident.
Photo: Eli Shamszadeh, April 11, 2016. According to Shamszadeh, by 10:48 PM, LAFD was gone and Rosebud was open again.  

While there have been very few torched stolen cars under the 2 Freeway in the last 10 years, the last one we documented was in 2007.