LAKE FOREST – When Howard Larnard learned about a Lake Forest couple's struggle to bring their critically injured son home, he knew his family had to help.

Larnard, 80, of Mission Viejo was touched when he read the story of Rob Pequeño, an Orange County Sheriff's deputy, and his wife Angela's dedication to their son Jimmy. He also knew from his own experience what the family was going through.

"I saw the story in the O.C. Register and one short sentence, 'The family also needs a van with a lift for wheelchair access,' " he said. "That was all I needed to see."

Larnard had that van. He bought the Ford 350 with a Braun lift in 2008 when his wife of 59 years, Anna, fell down a staircase. She required seven surgeries and was hospitalized for a year following the accident. The van only had 4,000 miles on it and Larnard knew it would make life for the Pequeños easier.

Last week Jimmy Pequeño, 18, came home thanks to a community campaign that helped build a special hospital-like room at the Pequeño's Lake Forest home. That's when Larnard made contact with Rob Pequeño. He and Anna went to Lake Forest City Hall and with the help of the Police Services presented the van and exchanged the necessary paperwork to make the legal transfer.

"Next to getting the room built, getting a van was our biggest worry," said Rob Pequeño, 47. "They took that worry away when they gave it to us. You hear about acts of kindness — this was huge. They went through something similar and they knew exactly what we were going through."

Howard and Anna Larnard had a connection to the Pequeño story. It was in 1977 when their own son, Patrick, then 19, was critically injured in a crash on the 22 off-ramp to the 55 freeway.

Patrick Larnard, like Jimmy Pequeño, was cut from the wreckage with the Jaws of Life. With broken bones, internal injuries and a traumatic brain injury, he lay in a coma at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana for three months. It would be a year before he became fully conscious.

The Larnards, like the Pequeños, kept a vigil at their son's side.

"We lived at the hospital," Anna Larnard said. "With someone like that you never, never leave them alone. I wore his favorite perfume, Shalimar, and we played his favorite music. We constantly wanted to stimulate his brain. There was one of us in his room all the time. Even the priest would come daily."

Patrick Larnard's first sign of recovery was on a day when he heard some of his favorite music. His arms were folded on his chest and his twin brother said, "Bro, play the drums," Anna Larnard remembered.

"He started moving his hands back and forth," she said.

A year after the crash, Patrick left the hospital. He had been athletic so he got back to that as best he could. Three years after the crash, he rode in a charitable bike ride in Irvine and won, beating Brad Gates, he said. He went to Orange Coast College and continued his studies and he worked in construction. He got married and had a daughter who this year is getting married.

"I'm lucky and blessed," said Patrick Larnard, now 54. "Getting through this wasn't easy. It took all of my family to through this. To be who I am now, took time."

The Pequeños, too, are hopeful, that time will help heal Jimmy. But for now they are thankful for what the Larnards have done to make their path easier.

Two men had tied up a 90-year-old woman at gunpoint and ransacked her home. For investigators, their best lead was the brief look the victim got of one of the men's faces.

It was enough for a sketch of the suspect that investigators released to the public. It's the type of effort that could help police make a fast arrest.

Minutes after the sketch was released online and on television, Aaron Berenschot's phone started beeping with anonymous tips. Two of the tips gave Berenschot – a dispatch supervisor with the sheriff's department - the same name. The next day, a suspect was in custody.

"You can't receive too many tips," said Berenschot, who is now also the coordinator for Orange County Crime Stoppers.

Law enforcement agencies are hoping for more tips like that with the launch of Orange County Crime Stoppers, a non-profit tip line that is working with all law enforcement agencies in the county get leads from the public. Many police agencies in the county already had their own telephone number for tips, but officials said by combining efforts they may be able to generate more help from the public.

The tip-line accepts text messages, phone calls and online message, and acts as a central line for those who wish to be anonymous, said Patricia Wenskunas, founder and CEO of nonprofit line.

As the coordinating agency for the line, the Orange County Sheriff's Department receives the original tip and distributes the information to the appropriate police department. The line can receive tips for specific crimes or general information residents want to give police department with the guarantee that their identity will not be revealed, Wenskunas said.

"Everyone wants to do the right thing, but some don't want to make the call," she said. "We're in a safe community, but crime still happens here."

This tip line protects their identity, she said, "and nobody knows who they are. They are not asked for their name, ever."

The possibility of being identified can dissuade the public from coming forward, Wenskunas said.

Wenskunas, founder of Crime Survivors Inc., had already established relationships with several police agencies in Orange County as a crime victim's advocate when she began to look at Crime Stoppers.

A national organization with chapters across the United States, the first Crime Stoppers was founded in 1976. On its website, Crime Stoppers USA now lists 298 chapters across the country.

"It's a really good system that's been working for 30 years," Wenskunas said. "For me, it's about keeping criminals off the street."

Three years ago, Wenskunas began meeting with Crime Stoppers in Los Angeles and San Diego to find out how to start an Orange County line. She also met with the police chief's association, to make sure county police departments would participate.

The response was positive, Wenskunas said, and in late 2011 the Orange County Sheriff's Department began to distribute the new tip line number.

The sheriff's department already had a tip line set up, but Orange County Crime Stoppers provided anonymity, Berenschot said. Now tipsters could also text and email information to a central number that could reach all police agencies in the county.

"We're really not doing anything new, it's just a formalized way and a 21st Century way to do it," said Berenschot, who is now working as the Orange County Crime Stoppers Coordinator.

Police have already received dozens of tips from the public at O.C. Crime Stoppers, despite the fact that the telephone number and website have not been publicized widely.

Several of the have already led to arrests.

Anonymous tipsters can send in pictures and they can follow up on the information they provide without revealing their identities.

"You're not going to have to worry about being victimized yourself," Wenskunas said.

Despite the anonymity, authorities can still interact with tipsters via text message and ask follow up information, Berenschot said. The tipster decides when they want to stop interacting.

"I think, ultimately, we know there are people that just fear repercussion," he said. "Now they have a way to do it."

Investigators in all of Orange County's police agencies are being informed on the new system and how it works, Berenschot said. Some police departments will likely continue distributing their own telephone number for a while, he said, but the Orange County Crime Stoppers line may be distributed alongside.

The tip line, he said, will just add another way that people can help law enforcement.

"We will do both in the beginning," said Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department. "It will be on a case-by-case basis, but our goal is to include it in all of them."

Orange County Crime Stoppers is still looking to recruit board members and donations, as it is a non-profit organization, Wenskunas said.

To submit tips and contact Crime Stoppers, you can call 855-TIP-OCCS or 855-847-6227. You can also reach Crime Stoppers online at www.crimestoppers.org.

Two freeway signs designating I-5 through San Clemente as the "Officer Richard T. Steed Memorial Highway" were dedicated Friday afternoon in a ceremony attended by state Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, San Clemente city officials and former San Clemente Police Department personnel.

The celebration was at Adele's at the San Clemente Inn, near a Steed sign along the northbound I-5 just south of Avenida Magdalena. The sign on the southbound side is just south of Camino de la Estrella.

Harkey, R-Dana Point, led a bill through the California Legislature in 2011 to designate San Clemente's stretch of I-5 in memory of Steed, the only officer in the now-defunct San Clemente Police Department to be killed in the line of duty. He was shot to death Nov. 29, 1978, while responding to a call for help.

Local fundraising provided the $5,000 the California Department of Transportation needed to create and install the signs.