Convicted felon caught trying to steal car in grocery lot

BY DREW HINSHAW

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – When a 54-year-old woman walked out of Matherne’s Grocery Store Friday, with family in tow, she found an accused felon with a sizable rap sheet hammering at the steering column of her Ford Explorer, according to St. John Sheriff’s Office reports.

With a little teamwork and ingenuity, she and a nearby citizen were able to trap the suspect in her car until deputies arrived, according to the reports.

Police say 53-year-old Julio Castro Jr. of Meraux was meandering through the parking lot, burglarizing unlocked vehicles that afternoon. Before slipping into the Explorer, police say he had managed to enter just one other car, stealing two screwdrivers and a hatchet.

Next, police reports accuse Castro of entering the Explorer, and hammering the screwdriver into the steering column of the car, allegedly in an effort to hotwire it.

As chance would have it, the car’s owner says she was just then walking out into the parking lot, toward her car. Police reports say she pressed the unlock button on her remote key, and her granddaughter hopped into the car, seemingly unaware that there was a man trying to steal it.

That’s when a bystander leapt into action lifting the girl out of the backseat, according to police reports.

Meanwhile, the man allegedly kept hammering on the steering column.

To prevent the suspect from escaping the woman began repeatedly mashing the lock button on her remote, according to the reports. Police say Castro, realizing he was trapped, tried to dash out of the passenger’s seat-but not before the bystander could lean his weight on the door, keeping him in the car. The woman ran over to the driver’s door, and did the same, according to the reports.

Officers Tanner Mangano and Callun Barlbrough were, at this time, circling the parking lot on a tip that a man had been burglarizing cars, according to police reports. Seeing the vehicle, Castro allegedly flung his hatchet into the driver’s side window in an attempt to escape, according to the reports. Glass flew everywhere, injuring the woman, and himself, according to police reports.

The noise of the shattered glass was so loud that the officers apparently mistook it for a gunshot, according to Major Mike Trege. They rushed over to the car, and apprehended Castro, according to the reports.

The Sheriff’s Office has commended the two citizens for their &#8220brave action,” in taking down a wanted man. Castro’s rap sheet dates back to 1970, when Gretna law enforcement authorities charged him as a principal to aggravated battery. Since then he’s been implicated in armed robberies, grand theft auto, and found with concealed weaponry, heroin, marijuana, and stolen vehicles.