S.J. cops go extra mile

A month out from disastrous flooding that flushed residents from the Rock Springs neighborhood and left scores still in limbo, a modest but reassuring tale has surfaced in the form of dogged determination by a handful of San Jose police officers.

In the frantic rush to flee the flooding neighborhood the morning of Feb. 21, resident

But Tran dropped a fanny pack containing her passport and other vital identification documents.

That evening, a San Jose firefighter walked over to the command post manned by Lt.

Christina LaCap and showed her the soaked red pack found in one of the rescue boats used to ferry evacuees from their homes to dry land on Senter Road.

LaCap said she made calls to the evacuation shelters to track down the 83-year-old Vietnamese-American woman who owned the items, to no avail. The lieutenant ordered the pack booked for safekeeping.

But the idea that the woman followed evacuation orders and still somehow ended up stranded without any way to identify herself — and likely facing a language barrier — troubled the veteran officer, who said “it weighed on me all night.”

LaCap went back to the neighborhood to ask residents if they recognized the woman, then called the shelters again. The next day, the same routine. No luck. And she couldn’t let it go.

“As the days went by, I thought about how devastated she must be,” LaCap said.

The lieutenant reached out to a colleague, Lt. Lisa Gannon, and they worked to map out new strategies to get the fanny pack back to its owner. Next on the list was contacting the Vietnamese consulate, in case the owner inquired about a new passport.

At wit’s end, LaCap happened to strike up a conversation with detective Dan Anderson while standing in line at the department’s records division, and they shared their experiences responding to the flood. As soon as she finished telling him the fanny-pack story, the wheels were already turning in his head.

“I can find her for you,” she recalled Anderson saying. Anderson consulted Officer

Chau Pham and they went to the property room to sort out the contents of the pack. None of the documents was issued recently. A 5-year-old receipt was the newest item.

But they did happen upon a business card for a local physician, and that doctor was able to give them a lead on where the owner might be. It turns out she didn’t go to any of the shelters. She found refuge with relatives in Milpitas.

Tran lit up when she was presented with her missing pack. She spoke little English, but voiced appreciation for the diligence that officers exercised.

Amid all of the heartache caused by the flooding, LaCap said it was reaffirming to her and her colleagues to bring peace of mind to at least one victim.

“Definitely a proud moment for SJPD,” she said.