Photos: Andrew Goff.

Numerous Outpost readers stationed near the border of Eureka and Cutten, on the east side of Sequoia Park, have written us about a large police presence in the area this afternoon. In the last few minutes, parents of children at Washington Elementary started receiving robocalls informing them that the school briefly went on lockdown, but that the threat has passed.

Naturally, people are curious.

Well, the Outpost‘s Andrew Goff caught up with Officer Matt Harvey of the California Highway Patrol at Redwood Fields, at the scene of a car crash that started all the mayhem. Harvey had quite a story to tell.

At about 8 o’clock this morning, Harvey said, a woman who lives on Hall Street, near the fairgrounds, reported that her car had been stolen. She told law enforcement that she suspected two juveniles who had been staying with her of the theft.

All was quiet until about a quarter after noon, when a Jeep came crashing through a fence at Redwood Fields and into a fifth-wheel trailer that is used by the caretaker of the grounds. As many as four kids were seen to pour out of the car and run off into the woods.

CHP officers arrived and determined that the Jeep is the vehicle stolen from the Hall Street woman this morning. They called in the Sheriff’s Office for backup, and deputies arrived in force. A bystander counted six HCSO vehicles massed near Timber Ridge, off Harris Street, who were engaged in the search for the juveniles.

Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Selena Zorrilla-Mendosa tells the Outpost that law enforcement spotted one or more of the suspects at one point, and engaged them in a foot pursuit. She said that it was her understanding that one of them had been taken into custody — but if so, word of that had not made its way back to Harvey, still at the scene.

Harvey told the Outpost that the suspects have been identified, and the driver of the crashed vehicle is believed to be a 14-year-old girl. All of the suspects are believed to be on juvenile probation.

Supervisors Rex Bohn and Ryan Sundberg were both at the scene of the crash — Bohn because it is his district and Redwood Fields is his baby, presumably, and Sundberg because he happened to be on a CHP ridealong at the time. They are assisting in the cleanup.

The owner of the vehicle arrived and reclaimed her car. It suffered no significant damage.