Two Los Angeles-area men who got lost after leaving a party in Joshua Tree, got their truck stuck in the desert, and thought they’d walk to Big Bear, were guests of the county Saturday night until they were sober again. Marco Salinas, 21, of Los Angeles, and William Ruiz, 35, of Santa Monica, left a party in the 7400 block of Elwood Street in Ruiz’s pick-up truck. According to a Sheriff’s report, they thought they were heading to Big Bear, but they ended up northeast of Joshua Tree. When the truck got stuck in the desert, they started walking, and had been walking about 1 ½ hours before they called the Sheriff’s Department for help. Ruiz and Salinas were found by Marines, who said the men were dangerously close to the live-fire exercise area where Marines are training for ITX 4-17. The Marines had to stop their training while the Sheriff’s Department sent in a helicopter to rescue them. Ruiz smelled of marijuana, and Salinas had drunk an entire bottle of hard alcohol at the party. The two men could not remember where they left Ruiz’s truck, and deputies were unable to locate it. William Ruiz and Marcos Salinas were both arrested for being drunk in public, and on misdemeanor warrants from other counties, booked into the Morongo Basin Jail, and released the next morning.
