Laying low in Mendocino

As a newcomer, this place feels like the Wild West

A local contractor told me that law enforcement has placed cameras all throughout the area, in the trees, along roadsides, in places you wouldn’t expect to find cameras, not in these woods. Photo by Stacey Warde

By Stacey Warde

People come here, I’m told, to get away, to lose the crowd, to tuck themselves into the shadows, and lay low.

It’s a bit like the Wild West, occupied by loggers, old hippies, transients, well-heeled investors in wine grapes and legalized marijuana, and farming innovators struggling to find ways to earn a living in the face of the current climate emergency.

Recently, Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies apprehended a two-strike, ex-convict, William Evers, tagged as the “Red Bearded Burglar,” who has allegedly been stalking unoccupied homes throughout the area and camping out, a fugitive from responsibility, for at least nine months. Some questions remain as to why it took so long for law enforcement to apprehend the offender whose bail has been set at $2.5 million.

Presumably a Mendocino County local, as reported by a sympathizer on Facebook, Evers is viewed as both a victim of circumstance and a perpetrator of home invasions. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted murder of a peace officer for allegedly shooting at a deputy who tried to arrest him in May. Evers got away and wasn’t caught until Nov. 5.

I talked with a longtime resident who lives down the hill from here, closer to Anderson Valley below…