Top story

ALHAMBRA

GPS system used to fight graffiti

A new graffiti-fighting system that uses satellite technology and digital photography has led to the arrest of half a dozen people considered the most prolific taggers in the city, police said.

Since June, police have used a digital camera that downloads the images into a database, which lists the global positioning system coordinates of each vandalism site.

The system also has recorded more than 100 different nicknames or "tags" of graffiti vandals. Police can enter a nickname and use it to track a tagger's movement patterns on a GPS map.

Six people have been arrested for investigation of vandalism this month.

In brief

LOS ANGELES

Pedophile says he will leave California

Self-described pedophile Jack McClellan said he is leaving California after a judge ordered him to stay away permanently from places where children gather, it was reported Sunday.

"I have to leave the state, really; I can't live here under this Orwellian protocol," he told KABC-TV. "It's nightmarish."

A call to McClellan's cell phone Sunday was not immediately returned.

McClellan, 45, has been unemployed and living out of his car since arriving in Southern California this summer from Washington.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Melvin Sandvig issued a permanent injunction and three-year restraining order that prohibit McClellan from coming within 30 feet of schools, playgrounds and other places where children congregate. Sandvig's ruling also bars McClellan from contacting, videotaping or photographing children or publishing their photos without written consent from a guardian or parent.

SAN CLEMENTE

Unexpected rain floods desert park

Drivers were stranded in their cars, beaches were evacuated and thousands lost power Sunday as a surprise summer thunderstorm soaked Southern California.

As much as three inches of rain fell on the deserts of southwest San Diego County. That prompted the California Highway Patrol to close the Borrego Salton Seaway in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, where CHP dispatchers said they received reports of motorists stranded in flooded washes alongside the road.

Lightning-struck power lines left 14,300 customers without power for about five hours, said a spokeswoman for San Diego Gas & Electric.

SAN JOSE

Authorities seize 100 roosters, spurs

As many as 100 roosters were being held after sheriff's deputies broke up what they described as a suspected cockfighting ring.

Deputies issued misdemeanor citations to 18 men briefly detained at a home east of San Jose on Saturday morning, Santa Clara County Sheriff's Sgt. Ed Wise said.

Authorities seized the roosters from dozens of cages on the property, where they found at least 20 pairs of razor blades used as spurs on fighting roosters, Wise said.

— From wire reports