For some months last year the trailhead parking lot for Hot Springs Trail in Montecito was closed in the evenings. Cones were placed right out to the edge of the pavement of Mountain Drive.
I came down the trail late on the evening of December 4, 2017, after enjoying stargazing on a fire road. At the top of Hot Springs Road I got on my electric bicycle to go home. As I approached the trailhead parking lot and the cones, I stopped to see what was going on. A security guard working for Mission Security and Patrol approached me and told me the parking lot was private property. He beckoned me to some barely noticeable handwritten cardboard signs on a chain link fence behind the lot stating that cars parked after 10 p.m. would be towed.
In complete disbelief, I told him the parking lot is a public lot used for many years. When I stayed in the parking lot to discuss the matter with him, he called the Sheriff's Office, and grabbed hold of my bicycle so I couldn't leave. When two officers arrived on the scene, deputies Scherubarth and Caravano, he was still holding onto my bicycle. He told me he recorded the encounter and was giving the recording to the deputies.