Lake Elsinore man accused of stalking near Harry and Meghan’s Montecito home
An alleged stalker was arrested this week near Prince Harry and Meghan’s home in Montecito.
Kevin Garcia Valdovinos, 29, of Lake Elsinore was placed under citizen’s arrest and booked by law enforcement on a charge of misdemeanor stalking without incident, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Wednesday to the Los Angeles Times.
The sheriff’s office later amended the charge to a misdemeanor prowling violation, not a stalking violation. An investigation is ongoing.
Authorities told The Times they received a 2:11 a.m. call on Monday from Harry and Meghan’s staff reporting that Valdovinos had been detained at a service entrance to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s residence. Valdovinos has since been released on $2,500 bail.
Prince Harry and Meghan say they were in a ‘near catastrophic car chase’ Tuesday while being followed by ‘highly aggressive paparazzi’ in New York.
According to TMZ, Valdovinos allegedly said something to provoke the royal couple’s security guards, who nabbed him before he could set foot on the property. It’s not known whether the Sussexes were home when the incident occurred.
Representatives for Harry and Meghan declined to comment.
A day after the arrest, the Sussexes reportedly were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” in New York while being pursued by “a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi.” A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan told The Times that photographers tailed the couple and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, relentlessly in a chase that nearly caused multiple traffic collisions.
With a controversial onslaught of public disclosure, Harry and Meghan have seized the means of production from a multibillion-dollar royal-watch industry.
“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” the spokesperson said.
“Dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all in involved.”
Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.
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