SAN DIEGO - The Drug Enforcement Agency wants its evidence back, and is warning that it has ways to identify motorists who stopped on two San Diego freeways to scoop up thousands of dollars thrown out a truckwindow by two narcotics suspects during a chase.
Agency officials said that an undetermined amount of money picked up bypassers-by on the 805 and 5 freeways is evidence in an ongoing druginvestigation and must be returned to the feds, said DEA spokeswoman Eileen Zeidlertold.
DEA agents and police recovered more than $17,000 after the Thursday afternoon chase.
The suspects, whose names have not been released, were taken into custody Thursday. Details about the investigation and how the chase began have not been released.
Zeidler says the agency has "a good ballpark idea'' of how much money the suspects had, and that the majority of it has not been accounted for. She said it will be next week before all the counting is done.
Some motorists returned the cash to the police. Zeidler said the agency will try to find the people who have not returned the money.
The spokeswoman said citizens are calling and sending in photos of people picking up money and their license plates.
A San Diego police helicopter and Caltrans cameras along the roadway also will be analyzed to identify people who scooped up the illicit cash.
The agency may also ask to examine video shot from other helicopters including San Diego 6 News' Sky6.
The pursuit began about 5 p.m. Thursday in the area of state Interstate 15 and Interstate 805, where the DEA had the two men under surveillance as part of a major drug investigation.
The fleeing driver exited southbound I-15 at Ocean View Boulevard in Logan Heights, and drove through city streets before re-entering the freeway, this time heading north, police said.
Officers chased the truck onto Interstate 805, through the city's central districts and into its north-coastal reaches.
In several spots -- including under the Adams Avenue bridge, at Murray Ridge Road and near Mira Mesa Boulevard -- cash was hurled out of the truck, prompting rush-hour drivers to pullover, get out of their cars and run onto freeway lanes to grab it.
"He peppered out a bunch of money and everybody on the freeway, started hitting their brakes. It was a madhouse" said onlooker Matthew Vincent.
Vincent was so worried about his safety, he pulled his car to the side of the road. "There were cars pulled out everywhere. People running out. Chinese firedrill just grabbing cash."
Drivers ran into oncoming traffic, hoping to pick up stray $20 and $100 bills.
"It was a dream come true, we were in heaven" said Madison High School student Marco Casillas in an interview with San Diego 6 News.
He ran into the traffic with his friends. "We saw one fly on the windshield and it was a $100 on my face and we just stopped and grabbed it... We were scared. We were parked halfway on the freeway, and halfway on the freeway...[But] we are football players and we were being greedy, and we were running and taking it from everybody, but then it got taken away."
Before they could escape with the money, officers seized the $1000 he and his friends had recovered.
Nearly an hour after the pursuit began, officers were still retracing the suspects' path, collecting the scattered money.
About 40 minutes into the chase, the fleeing driver, who may have run over a tire-flattening strip at some point during the chase, stopped in the middle of Interstate 5 near state Route 56. Officers then took the occupants of the pickup into custody, said San Diego police Sgt. Alan Hayward.
The Drug Enforcement Agency confirmed that a warrant was issued for a house on 7125 Keighley St. in Allied Gardens. The DEA tells San Diego 6 the warrant is related to the chase, but would not offer specifics.
At the end of the day, Madison High School student Jose Rios wouldn't have minded keeping the cash. "I thought it was somebody dropped their money, bad day for them, good day for us."
Rios' money was taken back by police, but still many San Diegans have a lot more money in their pockets than they anticipated when they started their commute home.
