Mountain Biker Reported Missing Has Strange Reaction To Rescuers
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO (CBSLA.com) — Officials Thursday located a 40-year-old Irvine man who went missing during a mountain bike trip.
A woman contacted authorities shortly before midnight Wednesday after her husband James Kretzschmar failed to pick her up from the airport, Irvine police said.
She told officers Kretzschmar may have gone on a mountain bike ride because his vehicle and bike were missing from their home.
Kretzschmar's vehicle was located around 2 a.m. in the Lazy W Ranch parking lot off Ortega Highway.
He was found safe and reportedly uninjured around 1:30 p.m. in Lyon Canyon, about 5 miles in from San Juan Fire Station, the Orange County Sheriff's Department said.
The man appeared to have a heated exchange with rescuers, taking his bicycle back out of a rescue vehicle and insisting he'd ride to the sheriff's command station on his own, Stu Mundel reported in SKY9.
He also had a similar reaction when he was later met by his wife, gesturing as if he may be irritated.
It's unclear what he said to rescuers and his family.