The rumble of an early morning rocket launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base woke many Los Olivos residents before dawn Thursday. What many of them saw, however, were firefighters flooding the town center to battle the flames of a large barn fire.
It was a surreal morning, when roughly an hour later a Sheriff’s helicopter began circling overhead, deputies cordoned off streets around Alamo Pintado Avenue and SWAT officers in tactical gear readied their rifles. The bomb squad arrived, schools were locked down and houses evacuated. Ambulances stood by.
Inside a home at 2230 Alamo Pintado Ave., a man had called 9-1-1 shortly before 8 a.m. claiming a “violent crime” had been committed.