The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Thursday an inmate who ran off from a work camp on San Francisquito Canyon Road was taken back into custody.
Alejandro A. Tobarfuentes, 33, a Chilean national, was reported missing from the camp after it was noticed that he was missing around 10 p.m. Sunday, according to the CDCR.
Special agents with the CDCR’s Office of Correctional Safety reported taking Tobarfuentes into custody without incident in the city of Mecca, an unincorporated community in Riverside County that’s north of Salton Sea.
The CDCR received Tobarfuentes from Orange County on May 14, after he was convicted of first-degree burglary and displaying a forged driver’s license or ID.
He was arrested June 8, 2024, after crashing a Mini Cooper head-on into a Toyota Camry while driving northbound in southbound lanes in Orange County, after narrowly missing hitting an Orange County sheriff’s deputy who had tried to pull the vehicle over, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Following his conviction, he was given a four-year, eight-month sentence.
Francisquito Conservation Camp No. 4 is jointly operated by the CDCR and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, according to its website. “Incarcerated crews are utilized on wildland fire suppression as well as county conservation assignments, including maintenance of the California Aqueduct, local parks and fire stations. Primarily, crews work in Los Angeles County but may respond throughout the state.”
The camp is located at 35100 San Francisquito Canyon Road.
Since 1977, ninety-nine percent of individuals who have left an adult institution, camp, or community-based program without permission have been apprehended.
“Staff immediately initiated an emergency count, confirming Tobarfuentes was not at the camp,” according to the statement. “Within minutes, agents from CDCR’s Office of Correctional Safety were directed to locate and apprehend Tobarfuentes and notification was made to local law enforcement.”
