Calexico business owner helps chase down border fence jumper
CALEXICO – It was not just another day working at a local post office on Friday, February 16 for one Calexico business owner.
A Ring.com security camera in a local downtown Calexico business caught footage when an alleged border fence jumper entered Barron’s Postal Services from the back employee entrance door, ran through the business past the business owner and a customer and made his way out through the front door, with a U.S. Border Patrol agent in hot pursuit.
Joseph Guilin, the business owner who was tending to a customer at the time of the incident, saw the man run through the store and passed his customer, with the agent in pursuit. Guilin can be seen on the Ring video asking the agent who was in pursuit if he was indeed chasing the man, then promptly leaping over the service counter and running out of his business’s door in an attempt to aide USBP in the apprehension of the man.
“It just came to me quickly [to jump to pursuit] because it was weird to see a guy who I had never seen before come through the back side of my building,” Guilin told IVP in an interview on Monday, February 19. “I didn’t know who that guy was and I see him running and I’m like, ‘ What the...?’”
“He’s running out and trying to go somewhere else,” the 31-year-old business owner said. “I come back and look down the hallway of my business and I see this Border Patrol (agent) barreling towards me and I’m like ‘...that guy was running away from him.’”
“I ask (the agent), ‘You’re looking for him?’ and he’s like ‘ Yeah, yeah,’ so then I run out and, sure enough, he’s in the 99 Cent Store (across the street) to try to evade him even more,” Guilin said.
“As soon as I got out
(of my store) I looked around both ways and he was nowhere to be seen, so the only logical thing would be (he went into) the 99 Cent Store, so when I followed him in there people were asking (about him) and everyone (in that store) saw him run,” Guilin said. “There were shoppers there that identified him.”
“I guess he was thinking that there was another door in the back over there, but no, they got him. They did handcuff him and put him in the (agency) car,” Guilin said.
Guilin said the man entered the business through a door that is for authorized personnel only. Though he has been working in the business since the age of 16 as the business has been owned by his family for generations, this is the first time Guilin has seen an on-foot Border Patrol pursuit occur inside a business rather than on the adjacent streets and alleyways outdoors, he said.
The Barron’s Postal Services building – owned by Guilin’s mother, Maritza Hurtado – also doubles as the Calexico Recall’s headquarters, Hurtado told IVP. The commercial mailing/receiving agency is contracted to receive and send mail and packages through the U.S. Postal Service, Guilin said.
“This afternoon, our office turned into a scene straight out of an action movie! The entire office is still buzzing with disbelief!” Hurtado wrote on the social media post on Friday evening.
“They’ve actually had a few people rob them,” Guilin said of the neighboring 99 Cents Store, who also had the man run through their store, alarming its customers. “It’s a daily occurrence for them, so I would image that (their back door) is locked.”
The odd instance comes a little over a year since Barron’s Postal Services was broken into on February 7, 2023, when Calexico Police Officers responded to a glass break burglary alarm, according to a CPOA social media post date February 12, 2023. The subject at that break-in was identified as a convicted felon, known gang member, and was wanted for various other felony crimes, according to that post.
The incident in February 2023 prompted Barron’s to install the Ring security cameras. Barron’s Postal Services is located on the 400 block of E. 2nd Street in Calexico. Calexico businesses on 2nd Street have voiced concerns over criminal activity in that local business area for the past few years, as previously reported in IVP and seen on City of Calexico council meetings.
The alleged border fence hopper might have been able to get through the border fence easier than normal due to construction being done to that area of the fence, Guilin said. IVP attempted to contact U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector media contacts on Monday, February 19, but did not receive a response by press time due to the national holiday.
The incident from this past Friday is another lesson learned for local business owners, Guilin said.
“That’s what we did too when we had a break-in about a year ago. We had to start locking down more for extra security,” he said.
“A lot of people said, ‘Oh my hero,’ you know, “Superman,’” Guilin chuckled of the feedback he has gotten since locals have seen the video, which was posted on the Calexico Recall 2024 Facebook group on Friday evening, “but for me it’s nothing like that. I’m always looking out for the one getting bullied
– I despise that kind of stuff – so if I can be there to help I would.”
“It’s just something that’s in me, always wanting to help people ...I went into action instantly; instincts kicked in and nothing else mattered,” Guilin said when asked why he decided to help in the pursuit.”
“I’m just that type of person instinctually, it’s just weird,” he said. “... For me it’s something that I know I can do in the moment I’ll do it
... I’m just one of those types of people. I’m usually the free bodyguard. And it helps to be 6-foot2, ya know?” he chuckled. “I got some weight and size on me so I use it to my advantage.”
As for the learning experience, Guilin encourages other business owners in the Calexico border area to “just be safe.”
“We can’t live in a little, small, sleepy town anymore ... be careful out there,” Guilin said. “Have your doors locked.”
“Rest assured, our team is safe, and the situation was swiftly handled,” Hurtado wrote on the social media post. “Kudos to our dedicated border patrol and a big shout out to Joseph for going above and beyond!”
“Let’s stay vigilant and ensure the safety of our downtown together,” Hurtado wrote.
“It’s different here now, so we just gotta adapt,” Guilin said.