[quote=ucodegen][quote=desmond]Why would you burn the truck? It only calls attention to it. I really think now he is going by the seat of his pants, I looked at the tracks of his truck from the tv and because it is not a 4×4 it looks like he got stuck. He probably hiked up the hill away from homes and will have to bivouac for the night. A freezing cold storm is on that mountain now, he won’t go far, to steep, high altitude, and he does not look in that good of shape. If I lived up there I would be awake all night and ready to defend myself.[/quote]
I don’t know about that. Did you look at it before it was attached to the tow truck.. or after? I saw only one image of it before the tow truck arrived and the vehicle was across the road, and would have been quite easy to drive it out from there. It almost looked like it was placed intentionally, and near an intersection. The area is mostly plowed, slushy but plowed. The problem is that his vehicle had been made.. it was no longer safe to use. Now the police are taking quite a bit of time to check the area. Typical. He did write that the way the police handle these things is predictable.

So the scenarios could be..

1) Got stuck.. decided to burn truck(which does not make that much sense because it calls attention to that area -> mountain + smoke means fast response). Police and Fire come to investigate, but he hadn’t set up a blind to take some rifle shots from before relocating? Doesn’t make sense in this context. The fire created a police target rich environment. It is also unusual considering that it is so cold up there right now, and will be colder shortly.

2) Placed vehicle across road far enough away from center of town so activity will not be seen. Has another car already there (having one or more ‘backup’ vehicles would be useful if one is trying to attempt what he intends). Stealing a car would not be useful because the vehicle gets ID’d when the theft is reported. His truck is no longer useful, so burns it to attract attention while heading out in another direction. It also causes the Police to now think he is on foot. They are busy focusing on the mountain.. Remember that he did this shortly after he was being followed by police. BTW Corona is south of Big Bear.. along 15 North. I suspect that he was originally trying to mislead police to thinking he was going to Mexico. Unfortunately for this, he got made going through Corona. Now he has to make them think he is somewhere else that would take a while to ‘search’.

I find the SD Boat ‘kidnap’ attempt interesting. Why didn’t he order the owner to start it? He could also order the owner to maneuver/drive the boat as well. Starting a boat is not that hard. Particularly when it is on the end pier. Dropping of the ID in SD is also interesting (though it would not be of much use anymore anyway). Remember, this guy is military trained, probably in asymmetrical warfare. Has handled being under fire (more so than most police). Not typical police nor typical criminal.[/quote]

Here’s what I think: After the shootouts in Corona and Riverside he knew he could not drive on the highways. He headed up toward the mountains. I doubt he had a car planted up there because: You don’t put a car in the mountains up a one-way road that does get use and would be seen by the forest service or passers by. The roads are very steep and icy up there, I live at the same elevation travel those roads all the time with my quad, a regular car has no chance. A camera will not capture how steep the terrain is. If the truck was sideways when you saw it that means he was spinning out and the backend was sliding to the left or right. I saw tracks burned through the snow behind his tires. I think he thought “I burning the truck and this will be my final hurrah” heading into forest. If he is up there he is freezing his ass off, won’t travel far, there really is no place to go other than to hijack a car or something else that is desparate. He is a little lucky with the weather they cannot use choppers. Or if he did have a car, never mind…….