A man was startled awake by a fiery car crash in his front yard in La Mesa. Instead of calling police, he jumped into action, pulling a passenger from the burning car.

The accident happened just before 1 a.m. on Baltimore Drive near Laport Street.

Kerry Campbell wasted no time getting his front yard, ordinarily the envy of the neighborhood, back in order. Fourteen hours earlier, it looked more like a bonfire.

“My wife and I hear a loud boom,” Campbell said. “I used one fire extinguisher and realized it wasn’t going to do anything. It felt like it lasted five minutes. Looking at the video, it lasted less than two minutes. I went around to the driver’s side door and pried it open and just pulled her out.”

She is the 25-year-old passenger of an incinerated Toyota Scion that crashed in front of Campbell’s home. Police say her injuries were not life threatening. She may have Campbell to thank for that.

“She was awake but not verbal,” Campbell said. “Clearly injured, but I didn’t see any blood.”

Neighbor Elizabeth Munn was terrified the fire might spread to her home next door.

“I was panicking because I have pets,” Munn said. “I was running in, trying to find them all. The car was almost completely engulfed in flames at that point. It was really scary. In the movies, you see cars on fire that go kaboom.”

Campbell not only pulled the young passenger from her burning car. His doorbell camera video shows that Campbell did it in boxers and bare feet — to his wife’s dismay.

“Kerry, get out of there,” his wife is heard saying in the recording.

How the car got there is a tale with many twists. Witnesses say the Scion was northbound on Baltimore Drive. Some 100 yards from Campbell’s house, the driver lost control, crossed the median and then collided with an evergreen tree in the middle of the road.

The force of the collision was so great, car glass was sprayed on the roof of the home across the street. The Scion barreled the wrong way toward Campbell’s front yard, finally coming to rest after crashing into his palm tree.

“A little emotional afterwards because my wife and kids were inside, and it could have ended up a lot worse,” Campbell said. “I feel good. I feel fortunate.”

Campbell says his actions were reflexive. He wasn’t thinking about it. He just did what needed to be done. He’s had no formal fire training. He was trained as a Marine 26 years ago, and he credits that training for being able to respond when needed.

La Mesa police say the 20-year-old driver remained at the scene and was arrested for driving under the influence.

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Carlos Stewart had 20 points in Santa Clara’s 81-80 win over San Diego on Thursday night.

Stewart shot 5 for 10 (4 for 7 from 3-point range) and 6 of 8 from the free-throw line for the Broncos (10-6, 2-1 West Coast Conference). Camaron Tongue scored 11 points, going 3 of 5 and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line. Adama Bal had 11 points and shot 3 of 8 from the field, including 1 for 6 from 3-point range, and went 4 for 5 from the line.

Kjay Bradley Jr. led the Toreros (4-11, 1-1) in scoring, finishing with 23 points, six assists and three steals. Santiago Trouet added 21 points, 11 rebounds and two steals for San Diego. Steven Jamerson II finished with 14 points and six rebounds.

Tongue scored six points in the first half for Santa Clara, who led 35-27 at the break. Stewart scored 16 points in the second half to help lead Santa Clara to a one-point victory.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Nearly a hundred San Diego County homeowners say a local ADU contractor took out enormous construction loans under each of their names for work that in most cases never even started. The contractor, Multitaskr, was based out of Chula Vista and was licensed to work in the state of California. 

The CEO of Multitasker, Jose Frausto, has not responded to repeated calls, emails and an in-person visit to his home by NBC 7 Investigates. We asked Frausto to explain how his company spent millions of dollars worth of construction loans. The company’s office building in Chula Vista has removed any signage of Multitasker and appears closed. State regulators have suspended Multitaskr’s license while they investigate the complaints lodged against it.

Some of the lenders are working with homeowners to cancel outstanding debts. In the meantime, dozens of Multitaskr clients are making thousands of dollars worth of loan payments each month for work they never got. 

“It’s expensive already to live here in San Diego,” said Sinthia Garcia. “Let alone being able to have to pay monthly for a house I don’t have.” 

Garcia says she has been paying construction lenders about $4,000 a month since July for an ADU she should already be living in. The 31-year-old social worker told NBC 7 Investigates she didn’t have many options for affordable housing in the San Diego area. 

An ADU behind her family’s San Ysidro home seemed ideal, not only in price, but in proximity to her ailing mother in need of caregiving support. Instead, Garcia now says she is burning through savings to be able to cover the monthly loan payments.

“It’s disheartening in a sense that I can’t move forward,” said Sinthia Garcia. “Because I’m stuck essentially.”

NBC 7

Garcia is one of dozens of Multitaskr clients seeking financial relief through the court system. Her attorney, Masuad Ghulam has four current lawsuits against Multitaskr.

“I think that it really could happen to anyone,” Ghulam said. “You have this company with amazing reviews on the internet…that they do all the financing in-house for clients. They were really a one-stop shop for everything.”

NBC 7 Investigates scoured court records and counted nearly 100 homeowners in San Diego County who have already filed lawsuits against the contractor. The homeowners claim Multitaskr took out cash loans totaling $15 million; money the contractor was supposed to spend on building accessory dwelling units or ADUs.

NBC 7

In the meantime, state protections offer little relief. 

“You’re not protected at all by these safeguards that you think would be in place,” said Robin Owen, who owns a home in Escondido and a rental property in downtown San Diego. 

Owen hired Multitaskr to build an ADU at each of his properties. The contractor took out more than $900,000 under Owen’s name. The permits were approved last year, but a shovel has yet to hit the ground on either project, and Owen says the company won’t respond to his calls or emails.

NBC 7

Licensed contractors in California are only required to have $25,000 of bond insurance. The money is supposed to go to clients when contractors fail to do the work they’re hired to do. If more than one homeowner files a claim against a contractor’s bond, the clients have to split the payout. However, the average claim against Multitaskr to build a single ADU easily exceeds $200,000. 

“It allows people to be in business,” says Katherine White, Chief of Public Affairs for the Contractors State License Board. “The problem is as we move up that bond it makes it trickier for us to vet the process, and for us to allow all the contractors to have this valid bond.”

It is against the law for a contractor to collect money for work that is not finished or material that is not delivered. A down payment cannot exceed $1,000 or 10% of the contract price, and subsequent payments cannot exceed the cost of materials and labor. 

While it’s illegal for contractors to accept a lump sum ahead of completing a project, apparently it’s not illegal for lenders to give them a bunch of cash all at once. State regulators with the Department of Financial Protection & Innovation told NBC 7 Investigates that there is nothing illegal about a lender paying a contractor for an entire project in full and upfront.

As part of the suspension of Multitaskr’s license, the Contractors State License Board is reviewing eleven complaints. Depending on the outcome of that investigation, information could be referred to the California Attorney General or the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office for potential criminal prosecution.