Father Fears His Family's In Danger After Mistaken El Dorado County Sheriff's Facebook Post
EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) — An El Dorado County father says he was just trying to do what any good dad would do, but instead he was treated like a common criminal.
What bothers Vincent Gatica more is his license plate was posted on Facebook by law enforcement as if he were a common criminal.
Gatica says he has a great deal of respect for law enforcement, but says the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department may have put his family in danger when it posted his license plate as part of an alert in a reported attempted abduction.
"From the comments I read, there's people threatening my truck, my family or me," he said. "I do feel threatened by the community, I don't know how serious it is."
Gatica is concerned for his family's safety after the sheriff's department posted a picture of his truck and license plate with the message "A citizen … observed a man possibly trying to coerce a young juvenile girl to get into his pickup."
That implication of a criminal act, he says was way off.
"I went to pick up my daughter up. It was raining," he said. "She was under the impression she was going to walk home. I decided to come pick her up because it was raining, and I guess somebody saw me pull over and motion to get into the vehicle."
The sheriff's department Facebook post was shared 5,000 times and led to comments like "That creepy lookin truck screams raper scraper," "Saddle up boys, it's hunting season," and "This dirtbag needs some bulletholes in his truck."
"Now we have people threatening to shoot my car, and my daughter sleeps right behind my car, so it just doesn't make sense," he said.
But in statement, a sheriff's department spokesperson offered no apologies for the Facebook post, writing, "Priority one of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office is the protection of our citizens and our community. When dealing with the circumstances we were faced with this past Friday, we will always error (sic) on the side of caution for the potential victim."
Only in this case, there was no victim, until a law enforcement Facebook post left his father and family in fear.
"As a society we shouldn't just jump on this bandwagon, burn 'em at the cross type of thing, because look at in this case—I'm trying to pick my daughter up on a rainy day and next thing I know I'm getting threatened to have bullet holes put in my truck," Gatica said.
He's now looking into painting his truck and possibly getting change of plates. The family just moved into their home two weeks ago, but this mix-up has them considering moving again.
The sheriff's department has since deleted the post in question.