MADERA COUNTY, Calif. — A concerning call in Central California Friday, May 23, drew deputies from across the county – a woman was carjacked and left stranded on a rural road.

Martha Gutierrez DeRomero, a Vallejo resident, claimed that early that morning, she had pulled over on the side of the road near Avenue 21 and Road 26 to fix the load in her panel van when she was carjacked by two masked men with a knife.

DeRomero said her van was packed with $60,000 worth of merchandise she sells at swap meets.

Madera County deputies were pulled from their posts to investigate and find the alleged suspects.

“We had other agencies like CHP, our Madera agencies and Merced, everybody out looking for this vehicle,” says Madera County Sheriff Tyson Pogue.

Sheriff Pogue said early on, his deputies were suspicious, but they weren’t taking any chances.

“Robberies are a violent and dangerous crime that’s been committed, so you never know,” he said. “I mean, there’s always the possibility that what if as they’re driving off, they turn around, they shoot the victim so that they can’t make this report or commit some other type of violence or use that stolen vehicle to go and commit a robbery or murder.”

What they didn’t know then was that Merced deputies had found that van and were doing their own investigation.

“It appears that they offloaded the merchandise out of the van, went and dumped it out in a rural area of Merced County,” Pogue said.

The merchandise was found in a storage unit, also in Merced.

Eventually, Pogue says DeRomero admitted to scheming with her boyfriend, Alfredo Delezma, to commit insurance fraud.

Sheriff Pogue says it seems the two were the only ones involved, and the masked men likely didn’t exist.

DeRomero was booked in the Madera County Jail for felony fraud, conspiracy and filing a false police report.

Delezma hasn’t been arrested, but could also face charges.

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