May 16, 2008

Two teens escape from probation camp

By Shaun Bishop / Daily News Staff Writer

Two 17-year-old criminals walked away Thursday afternoon from a youth detention camp near La Honda, officials said.

The boys escaped around 2:15 p.m. from Camp Glenwood, a medium-security center run by the San Mateo County Probation Department, sheriff's Lt. Marc Alcantara said.

Alcantara said walk-aways from the rural camp happen fairly regularly.

The boys, one of whom had been detained for making terrorist threats and the other for robbery, were officially considered "absent without leave," he said, because they did not have to climb any fences to get out.

"Quite often they walk off of that camp into the woods - the poison oak-covered woods - only to pop up several hours later once they find out there's nowhere to go up there," Alcantara said.

The two were described as black, with short hair, wearing camp logo T-shirts - one green and one yellow - and blue jeans.

They had not been found by late Thursday afternoon, though sheriff's deputies were still searching the area.

An electronic message through the SMC Alert system went out at 3:37 p.m. notifying neighbors about the escape and asking them to call 911 if they spot the teenagers.

Alcantara said the incident was not as serious as when accused 17-year-old murder suspect Josue Raul Orozco escaped from the Youth Services Center in March. He is still on the lam.

After that incident, neighbors in nearby San Mateo Highlands were incensed that they got no notification from the county about Orozco's escape.

Many read about it for the first time in the newspaper two days later.

"We did learn from that and that's why we're sending out the SMC Alert," Alcantara said.

E-mail Shaun Bishop at sbishop@dailynewsgroup.com.