Crazy Morning in San Clemente

​A 23-year-old man whose actions brought Orange County sheriff's deputies to a San Clemente apartment early today is innocent of any criminal charges against him until they are proven in court, but it is safe to say he's at least guilty of making a spectacle out of himself.

A call about a loud radio sent the heat to the apartment complex in the 1100 block of Calle del Cerro around 4:30 a.m. When deputies entered the unit, the unidentified man who had been there was gone, apparently having jumped out a third-story window.

He reemerged around 6 a.m., when he confronted a 34-year-old woman walking her pet Schnauzer near the apartment complex. He allegedly picked up her dog, choked it and  slammed it into the pavement, killing the pooch. The man then ran off.

The chap turned up a few minutes later running naked around the Rancho San Clemente Tennis Club. As deputies approached--hopefully with large net in hand--the man was said to be lying on the ground, pouring coffee over his nude body.

The suspected dog killer was arrested and hospitalized.

"He may have been under the influence of drugs," sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino told the Orange County Register.

For those keeping score at home, that's one fewer who will be out there on New Year's Eve.