Solvang Resident Dodges A Bullet

Erle Pittman said he normally reads in the afternoon next to a window in his favorite chair. Luckily, not on Thursday.

The gunfight that erupted in a Solvang mobile home park hit dangerously close to home for Pittman; at least one bullet tore through his house.

“It hit here,” Pittman said. “It blew the stuffing over here.”

Pittman shows a NewsChannel 3 crew a fistful of white stuffing sitting on his coffee table that had been shot clean out of his favorite chair during the firefight that left Amber Alert suspect Fernando Castro dead and his abductee, Pearl Pinson, missing.

“Where were you?” NewsChannel 3 asked.

“I was watching television,” Pittman said, laughing.

The bullet cut a clear path from the outside through the living room wall of his mobile home, damaging furniture before barreling up into the living room ceiling. Outside, his mailbox was riddled with a trio of bullet holes.

“I thought my cat had tore up some,” Pittman said, referring to the shredded arm of his chair.

That afternoon, a cacophony of sirens, helicopters and gunshots filled the small community.

“Boom, boom, boom … happening at the same time,” Pittman said.

The barrage of loud noises made it impossible for Pittman to notice what was happening inside his own home.

“I didn’t see this til late in the afternoon when one of the investigators was out here and said, ‘I think you should check … I think you have a bullet hole,'” Pittman said.

Pittman agreed, it was pure luck that he chose TV over a book that day but he’s taking his good fortune in stride.

“I’m an ex-cop and have been through this a couple of times,” Pittman said, referring to his career in the 1960s as an officer for both the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol.