SAN ANTONIO – A 27-year-old man is blamed for causing a panic-filled morning for two families on the city's South Side.
San Antonio police said it started just before 6 a.m. Tuesday when Julio Garzes stole a car from the parking lot of a 7-Eleven store in the 2100 block of Southwest Military Drive.
Officers responded to a 911 call from that location and found out the car owner's two children were inside the vehicle at the time, police said.
Police said they quickly located the car, which had been abandoned with the children safely inside, at a Carl's Jr. restaurant just down the street.
Garzes ran off, taking the car owner's cellphone with him, police said.
Officers followed a signal from the phone to a parking lot about a mile away, but they didn't find Garzes right away.
While police were searching the area, they received a call about a burglary in progress at a home nearby in the 900 block of Rayburn Drive.
Officers went to the residence and arrested Garzes, who they said had walked into the home through an unlocked back door.
Police later linked Garzes to the theft of the car with the children.
Investigators believe after Garzes abandoned the stolen car, he used a wooded pallet to climb over the fence of a business on Southwest Military Drive into the backyard of the Rayburn Drive home.
Police said an 18-year-old man inside the home convinced Garzes to walk outside momentarily, which gave other family members a chance to call 911.
Officers said Garzes denied any involvement in the earlier car theft and told them he only went into the home to get help after an accident.
Garzes was charged with theft of a vehicle and criminal trespass.
He was being held in the Bexar County Jail in lieu of $11,000 bond.