# Woman takes hostages on ride through Marin Headlands



## slow.climber (Nov 25, 2010)

Great, the one day I don't go on my regular ride I miss all the fun stuff.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_16984259?nclick_check=1

Marin County cops: Woman who claimed world was going to end abducted four people
By Gary Klien


Marin Independent Journal

Posted: 12/31/2010 06:31:00 PM PST
Updated: 12/31/2010 08:54:21 PM PST


A woman who claimed the world was going to end in an apocalyptic earthquake Friday was arrested in the Marin Headlands on allegations of abducting four people off the streets of Berkeley and San Francisco, a federal spokeswoman said.

Lark Ann Freeman, 36, of Fairfield was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping, false imprisonment, evading police, reckless evasion, resisting arrest and violating a red light into a one-way tunnel. At the jail, she described her occupation as "save the world."

The incident unfolded around 9:45 a.m. when a park ranger noticed a 30-foot U-Haul truck straddling lanes near Alexander Avenue in the Headlands, said Alexandra Picavet, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

When the ranger tried to stop the truck, the driver took off and entered the one-way Bunker Road tunnel against the five-minute red light, Picavet said. The truck got through the tunnel without encountering oncoming traffic and continued toward the coast. 

Sheriff's deputies, Sausalito police and U.S. Park Police joined the chase, finally cornering the truck at the Bird Island overlook near Rodeo Cove. The driver and two passengers refused orders to get out of the U-Haul.

As police negotiators worked to resolve the standoff, a 74-year-old man climbed out of the truck cab and said he needed to use a restroom. He then told police that he had been lured into the truck from People's Park in Berkeley on a promise of cigarettes -- and that three other captives were being held in the back of the truck, according to Picavet.

Tactical units were sent in and extracted three people from the rear of the truck. One of them told investigators that the driver had contacted them that morning at Aquatic Park in San Francisco and offered money if they would help her move.

The three were then locked inside the truck. The man said he called 911 from his cell phone, but the call apparently did not go through.

Police then moved in on the truck cab, arrested Freeman and detained the other passenger, who was identified as Freeman's aunt.

Authorities were still investigating what Freeman intended to do with the people in the truck. She told police she thought the world was going to end in an earthquake at 11:11 a.m. and she "wanted to be prepared," Picavet said.

The suspect's aunt was released without charges. Police impounded the truck for further investigation.

Freeman's bail was set at $50,000. An initial court appearance was expected Monday.


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## Fogdweller (Mar 26, 2004)

I missed this too!! That will teach me to ride in West Marin!!


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

This has nothing to do with northern California road riding. Why did you post this?

Edit: Oh wait, Gary Klein!


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## slow.climber (Nov 25, 2010)

Oh very good, the 'other' Gary Klein. I hadn't thought of that,

I was thinking of that truck rollin' though the tunnel against the light with a couple of guys locked in the back going 'Are we there yet?". Gary might of been just the man for this job.

I've been told that Marin Headlands is one of the training sites for young NPS police.

In general it's such a quiet place that it's easy to forget about the drug busts, the 'recoveries', the high speed chases. About two years ago some one was poaching fox and other little furry guys. I can across a carcass that had clearly been skinned by a human.

One of the biologists told me that she had chased off a guy in that area who seemed to be setting traps. She told me that she had come across a similar fox carcass in another part of the park. Sadly, I haven't seen any fox since then. The coyotes had been chewing them up; they don't like other dogs in their territory. The poaching may have been the last straw. BTW, these were native California Red Fox. There are hardly any of those little guys left.

Sarah P., was that you?

Fun fact. I met a biologist there a few years back who was studying the fox population. We got to talking about the fox that were showing up in San Francisco. I ask her where they came from; she told me 'across the bridge'.

Seriously, there's a guy at UC Berkeley doing population genetics and it turns out that the fox cross the Golden Gate bridge at night. I don't know if they carry little lunch pails, but I'd like to think that they at least bring a sandwich.

Unfortunately most of them seem to have been squished by traffic. For a while I was plucking out whiskers and mailing them to the guy at UC so that he could fill in his database. But the traffic seems to have flattened the foxes faster than they made new ones. There used to be a population out by the Olympic club. You could see them when you were riding on Skyline but they seem to have all been ironed flat over the last few years


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## txzen (Apr 6, 2005)

Crazy - saw the cops driving through Sausalito that morning like nuts, and was wondering what was so urgent. 

Glad I wasn't in the tunnel that morning.


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## centurionomega (Jan 12, 2005)

Two things.

That's why I personally don't use that tunnel to get back to the Golden Gate Bridge. It is scary and wet and dangerous. Besides, MuCullough Rd. is such a nice climb.

slow.climber you lent a whole new dimension to riding through the GGNRA. I saw a coyote one time but never knew there was foxy. It's a hard life I imagine for those little guys. Gophers must be tasty though.


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## slow.climber (Nov 25, 2010)

centurionomega, 

It's surprising to me how many different kinds of wildlife live in that park. There's a family of river otters that live in the lagoon. Mostly we see them either early in the morning or early evening. They're cute, in that hyper-active psycho-killer way that otters are cute. One day we saw 6 of them swimming together. They were making chirping sounds as they swam.

About once a year we see a solo mountain lion wondering through on its way to who knows where.

Met a guy coming off of bobcat trail around sunset. He had just had a close encounter with a young lion. The cat walked out in front of him down in the willows. He was visiting the bay area. He lives and rides about 100 miles north of here so he sees lots of lions but he's not very fond of them. He was a big dude. I'm 6'3" and he was bigger than me; plaid shirt, full beard, typical mountain guy but he was more than a little twitchy about the lion.

He says that his buddies all carry a handgun when they're on the trails. I laughed when he said that and he said 'Yeah they're crazy, you can miss, that's why I always carry this...' and as he's talking, he's waving his arms around and he reaches back over his shoulder and fluidly whips out a hatchet.

So yeah, there's all kinds of interesting wild life in the park.


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