In a bizarre set of circumstances, a Nevada man was arrested in Yucca Valley early Monday morning, accused of burglary. A Sheriff’s report said deputies were called to Hi-Desert Medical Center about 11:30 p.m. for a man who said he was suicidal and was causing a disturbance. By the time deputies arrived, the man had left on his off-road vehicle. Despite spending hours looking, the California Highway Patrol and Sheriff’s deputies were unable to locate him. Unbeknownst to the deputies, the man had ridden his Rhino vehicle through Joshua Tree, somehow losing his helmet, skateboard, backpack, and phone in the yard of a home in the 63800 block of 29 Palms Highway, on his way to Yucca Valley. Deputies deduced that the man drove his Rhino through the desert, paralleling the highway, before he crashed his vehicle in a ditch at Pinon Trail and Highway 62. Then about 2 a.m., deputies were called to a motel in the 54800 block of 29 Palms Highway because the night clerk said a strange man was pounding on the window; the man said he was being followed and needed medical aid. Arriving deputies found Joshua Goldstein, 29, of Reno, in the parking lot. Goldstein appeared to be under the influence and was combative with deputies. After detaining Goldstein, deputies found an iPhone in his pocket. Deputies allege that Goldstein had kicked in the door of a room at the motel and asked to borrow the occupant’s phone, then left with it and started pounding on the night clerk’s window. A few hours later, the Joshua Tree resident called to report he had found Goldstein’s belongings in his yard, and neighbors called to report the Rhino in the ditch. Joshua Goldstein was arrested for investigation of burglary, booked at the Morongo Basin Jail, with his bail set at $25,000, and will be arraigned in court today.
