Authorities are now saying that Avtar Singh, the 57-year-old Tracy man who was found dead in Napa's Lake Berryessa after going missing near his home, was likely not the intended target of his abductors and killers.

The disturbing story of a father of three newborns who was apparently abducted in Tracy last Tuesday and turned up dead in Lake Berryessa on Friday has taken a more troubling turn, as investigators now believe he was not the person whom his killers intended to abduct.

San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow told KCRA this week that his detectives are seeking help from the public as they try to figure out who the intended target was.

"This was not a random act," Withrow said, speaking to KCRA. "They were targeted after another individual for a specific reason and we're hoping that reason comes to the light."

Surveillance video shows Singh being forced into a white SUV on Tuesday, February 17, near the Gurdwara Gur Nanak Parkash temple along West Grant Line Road in Tracy. The video appears to show Singh trying to resist, but being overtaken by three men.

Singh reportedly lived and worked at the Sikh temple as a volunteer cook, and when he was taken, he had three small children — newborn triplets — in his care. Per KCRA, Singh was reported missing when his wife came home from work Tuesday evening around 8:50 pm to find the infants left alone at their home.

A temple spokesperson, Deep Singh, tells the station, "The kids were alone. God's blessing. They were safe, but they were alone."

The spokesperson adds, "He was very sincere and hard working. For 23 years, his main role was the head cook at our gurudwara, at the temple, but he was not only a cook, he was a multi-tasking person."

Deep Singh further explains that Avtar and his wife had recently been celebrated at the temple after the triplets had been born premature, and had only recently come home from the hospital. "It was a big celebration," he tells KCRA. "He was happy, mom was happy, and the community was happy. We're not going to be able to repair her loss."

The children are now reportedly six months old.

A GoFundMe for Singh's wife and triplets has so far raised over $427,000. "Raising even one child as a single mother is challenging — and with three infants, the responsibility is immense," the GoFundMe description says.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office is investigating the case as a homicide, and has not released any further details about any possible motive, or the intended target of the suspects.  Anyone with information is urged to contact the office at 209-468-4400.

Previously: Body of Man Found In Lake Berryessa Suspected to Be Victim of Kidnapping

After 57-year-old Avtar Singh was reported missing in Tracy last Tuesday, authorities have confirmed that a body found in Lake Berryessa on Friday is his, and surveillance video indicates foul play by three suspected kidnappers.

There were definitely some loose ends in a Saturday report on KTVU about a 57-year-old man named Avtar Singh who was reported missing in Tracy this past Tuesday, and then a dead body being discovered in Lake Berryessa on Saturday. According to KTVU, both the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office (where Tracy is located) and the Napa County Sheriff's Office (home to Lake Berryessa) were at that time "investigating to see if there is a potential link" between Singh's disappearance, and the grisly discovery of a dead body.

And by Monday morning, KPIX was reporting that the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office has confirmed that the dead body is Singh's. And other surveillance evidence collected in the investigation indicates pretty strongly that Singh's death was foul play, and he was likely kidnapped on Tuesday.

KTVU notes there is some manner of surveillance video — and the source of this surveillance video is not mentioned — showing three individuals in a white SUV, all wearing dark clothing, forcing Singh into the SUV at about 2:30 pm on Tuesday. The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement last week that Singh "appears to have entered the vehicle against his will.

Then at 3:20 p.m. on Friday, Napa County Sheriff's Office deputies received a call about a dead body seen floating in Lake Berryessa. That sheriff's office quickly put out a statement saying that deputies "immediately noticed that the crime did not appear to have occurred in Napa County," indicating they already has a strong hunch that this was the missing man from Tracy.

Singh's cause of death has not yet been announced. Authorities have not made any arrests, nor have they announced any suspects. But both sheriff's departments insist this was an isolated incident, and there is no threat to the public in either of the two counties.

Related: Woman Grabbed Off Street In Apparent Kidnapping In East Oakland [SFist]

Image: Haha169 via Wikimedia Commons

• Trump is demanding that Netflix eliminate Democratic foreign policy expert Susan Rice from its board or “face the consequences” after he previously promised not to get involved in Netflix and Paramount’s attempted takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. [Guardian]
• The Oakland Zoo is celebrating the arrival of its first baby red-tailed monkey after two of its red-tailed guenons Nonami and Marley delivered a baby boy Friday. [NBC Bay Area]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• An overturned big rig that spilled some oil and diesel fuel caused a major traffic situation on I-238 in San Leandro Thursday morning. The truck overturned around 1:35 am on the northbound I-238 connector to southbound I-880. [East Bay Times]
• A Fremont man was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting a tow truck driver and pointing a replica gun at him. [KRON4]
• Once popular Blades Co. Barbershop in SF's Financial District is struggling financially and turning to crowd-funding — and a planned new location in the Mission Rock development has apparently fallen through. [KRON4]
• The race route for annual Big Sur Marathon had to be rerouted due to the Highway 1 slip-out near the Rocky Creek Bridge, so now the April 28 race will start about 13 miles further north. [Bay Area News Group]
• Humorist David Sedaris is coming to Berkeley, to Cal Performances, on May 5. [East Bay Times]
• Three men were rescued by the US Coast Guard this week after spending a week stranded on the remote, tiny Pacific island of Pikelot Atoll, after they spelled out HELP in palm fronds on the beach. [CNN]

Photo via PG&E

A federal investigation into a Popeyes franchisee called 14th St. Chicken Corp, which ran three fast food restaurants in Oakland, Tracy, and Newark, revealed that it was illegal hiring employees as young as 13.

The franchisee, which is based at 7007 International Blvd. in Oakland, also had hired minors who worked later and longer than permitted by child labor laws, as well as shortchanged workers by not paying out overtime earnings.

It was apparently the third time that the 14th St. Chicken Corp had been found in violation of labor laws, according to a federal press release.

The company has already had to pay a total of $212,000 in fines, damages, and unpaid wages, with federal investigators saying, "This is the third time that the division has cited the Oakland-based Popeyes franchisee for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act."

The Chronicle reportedly tried to reach the listed CEO and secretary, Mohammad Zarif Noor and Sedig Joe Amin, but he did not respond.

The announcement came nearly nine months after fast food workers held a protest outside that Oakland Popeyes at 7007 International Blvd. over the child labor complaints, per the Mercury News. The restaurant temporarily shut down, but has since reopened.

The original complaint reportedly came from two 17-year-old employees who worked at the Oakland location. They complained of alleged child labor and “frequent violence.” As the Mercury News reported, they said that a 13-year-old girl in the seventh grade was working 40 to 45 hours a week, six days a week, with shifts until midnight on three school nights a week.

Federal laws prohibit the employment of any child under 14 in restaurants, and while 14- and 15-year-olds can be hired, they cannot work during school hours, no more than 3 hours on a school day, more than 8 hours on a non-school day, and no more than 18 hours during a week when school is in session.

"The U.S. Department of Labor is determined to fight child labor violations in all sectors, including the fast-food industry," said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Alberto Raymond in a statement. "Child labor laws protect minors and help ensure young workers enjoy positive workplace experiences without jeopardizing their education."

Image of Oakland Popeyes via Google Street View.

Out in San Joaquin County, it seems a few drivers don't like to abide by road closures that inconvenience them, and this has resulted in three vehicles in two weeks getting fully lodged in a sinkhole that's about 12 to 15 feet wide.

"It happened again. We can’t make this stuff up," writes CHP-Tracy on Facebook after the latest incident of a pickup truck tumbling fully into the sinkhole. "This was 100 percent preventable.  There is no excuse. The signs are clear, visible, and unobstructed."

These are the signs the truck's driver ignored:

The sinkhole formed on Kassen Road in San Joaquin County, just outside of Tracy and west of Modesto. As KPIX reports, the sinkhole began forming on January 17.

That above incident happened on January 28, and two days earlier, this happened, involving a silver sedan and a similar scofflaw who didn't want to heed the warnings.

"We’re at a loss for words.  If only there were signs and/or barriers that could have prevented this…" CHP said at the time.

"Many motorists use Kasson Road to commute to Stockton, Manteca, Modesto, and are frustrated about the road closure," CHP posted in the days after the road was initially closed for an indeterminate amount of time. They suggested alternate routes, and yet, people still seem to want to bypass the barricades and try their luck, and then miss the 15-foot sinkhole before it's too late.

Images from January 17 show the first car to get subsumed, when the water from a nearby waterway was flooding over the road and creating the sinkhole in the first place.

And the bafflement was only elevated when a car dropped into ponding water and another apparent sinkhole on Patterson Road the same day.

"Please let this be the last one!" the CHP officers posted at the time (Jan. 17). "'ROAD CLOSED' on Patterson Pass Road east of the Alameda County Line. The signs are posted for your safety. IF YOU COME ACROSS A ROAD CLOSURE, TURN AROUND AND FIND AN ALTERNATE ROUTE!"

Tom BetGeorge, the lighting designer whose holiday light displays on his home in Tracy at Halloween and Christmas time have been the stuff of much local-news fodder the past few years, is back at it, but with new personal meaning to this year's work.

BetGeorge, a former music teacher in the East Bay, parlayed his talent for LED shows set to music into a small business in recent years, as SFist has noted previously. He began with locally famous light shows on his home in Fremont back in 2014, and he popped back on our radar last year at Halloween and Christmas, when he set his show to the holiday mashup tune "Sarajevo" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

This year, as he tells ABC 7, the music choice was "Titanium" by David Guetta and Sia — not exactly the soundtrack to a holiday show, per se, but BetGeorge picked it for a special reason.

Referencing the lyrics, BetGeorge says that his wife survived a stroke while pregnant this year, and he wanted the show to honor her strength.

"She barely survived and is the strongest person I've ever known," BetGeorge tells ABC 7. "She's truly 'bulletproof'."

Enjoy:

San Francisco officials have alleged secretive “homeless dumping” by surrounding Bay Area communities. The mayor of east-of-the-East Bay town Tracy, Robert Rickman, openly embraces the idea, saying it’s "something that we can do tomorrow."

You might remember Supervisor Aaron Peskin alleging a few weeks back that the San Mateo County bus service SamTrans was straight up dumping the homeless in San Francisco under the cover of darkness at 2:30 a.m. While it created a minor ripple of controversy, it perhaps should not have, as the SFPD essentially sanctions the process by handing out free bus tokens at SFO closing time in order to clear the airport. We could see a little more controversy stem from the latest iteration of this idea, though, as KPIX reports that the mayor of Tracy has openly called for busing its homeless population to Stockton.

Stockton is less than 17 miles away from Tracy, so we’re not particularly confident this is an ironclad solution.

This was not a “hot mic” moment for the Tracy mayor — he said it at Tuesday night’s city council meeting in video from KPIX’s sister station KOVR in Sacramento. “I know they just built a nice big shelter in Stockton,” Mayor Rickman said. “If it’s going to be 35 degrees, why don’t we have a designated spot? They can come, get a ticket, and go to that shelter?”

Rickman doubled down when KOVR asked him about it after the meeting. “All this money from our city, on our property tax, is getting shipped over to the county and put into the city of Stockton, it’s not returning to our cities.” (Stockton and Tracy are both located in San Joaquin County.)

Needless to say, the mayor of Stockton had words.

“I thought it was pathetic,” Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs told KVOR, noting that Rickman had voted against an emergency measure in 2018 that would have funded a shelter in that city.

Maybe this is just San Joaquin County drama that should not interest us in the Bay Area proper. But maybe it should; for concern of the normalization of so-called homeless dumping, particularly to cities like San Francisco and Oakland who are at least trying to add thousands of shelter beds. Though the wisdom of the ‘bus ticket solution’ may itself be flawed, after all, San francisco tries this too in a Gavin Newsom-initiated effort called Homeward Bound, which the Chronicle found has decidedly mixed results.

Related: Homeless on BART a Growing Issue For End-Of-Line Stations [SFist]

Image: City of Tracy

A former music teacher in the East Bay who has made a habit over the last decade of making elaborate light-show sequences at his home set to music for both Halloween and Christmas is back at it again with a new Halloween display set to Skrillex's "Bangarang."

Tom BetGeorge, who now lives in Tracy, first got on SFist's radar with a Christmas light show in 2014, when he was living in Fremont. That year his home was featured on ABC's "Great Christmas Light Fight," with a display set to a medley of music from Star Wars. He's continued, every Halloween and Christmas, to create new light sequences and displays at his home, the latest being pretty rowdy by comparison to the much tamer "This Is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas which he did two years ago.

As ABC 7 reports, what started as a hobby for BetGeorge has grown into a business. As you can see from his website, BetGeorge now has clients all over the country, including Disneyland, for whom he creates light displays. (There's also a free download link there for the Skrillex sequence.) The proceeds from the Halloween show at his house, for which he takes donations nightly, go to benefit a local family shelter.

Here's his pre-HBO-documentary Michael Jackson tribute display from Halloween 2018.

And here's the Nightmare Before Christmas display fro 2017.

And here's the equally impressive heavy metal version of "Carol of the Bells" that BetGeorge and collaborator Matt Phipps did for Christmas 2017.

Previously: Video: Bay Area Man Turns Christmas Decorations Into Massive Star Wars Tribute

Melissa Huckaby, the 28-year-old Tracy woman accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering Sandra Cantu back in April, has yet to enter a plea in court. Lots of crying and grimacing? Sure. But after four court appearances, Huckaby has yet to enter a plea. So, in an effort to speed things up, prosecutors have asked the judge in the case to enter a plea of not guilty for Huckaby if she once again refuses. If she doesn't enter a plea today, the judge could very well do it for her. If convicted of the horrific murder of Cantu, whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase, Melissa could face the final prick. UPDATE: Huckaby pleads not guilty to killing Cantu.