On Friday, October 14th, 2022, at 6:44 am, the Turlock Police Department was dispatched to a reported hit and run that had just occurred in front of a residence in the 1200 block of N Olive Ave, Turlock.

When officers arrived on scene, they found three vehicles involved, one of them being a gray Toyota sedan.

At the time of the collision, the gray Toyota sedan only had a single occupant, driver Jose Cardenas, 47, of Turlock. He had suffered minor injuries and fled the scene prior to officers’ arrival, however, was later located and refused to be transported to the hospital. The other two vehicles were parked and unoccupied.

About an hour and a half later, at 8:10 am, the Turlock Police Department was dispatched to a reported carjacking that had just occurred at Dutcher Middle School, 1441 Colorado Ave.

Officers arrived on scene and met with the “victim” of the carjacking, Cardenas, who was displaying objective symptoms of being under the influence of alcohol. Cardenas was bleeding and told officers that the people who had taken his car had beat him up, however, he had told another person in the area a different story about how he had just been involved in a collision. A witness to the collision was taken to Cardenas and they were able to positively identify Cardenas as the man who they had seen fleeing the scene on foot.

Cardenas was arrested and released on a citation on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and hit and run causing property damage. Additionally, he was issued an administrative driver’s license suspension order by the California Department of Motor Vehicles and his vehicle was impounded.

It’s currently unknown how the collision occurred.