[lilithfiend]

A private pilot suspected of repeatedly flying his small plane at low altitudes over a Concord neighborhood where his ex-girlfriend lives has been arrested on suspicion of stalking, police said Thursday.

Tom Huey, 51, was arrested at Buchanan Field Airport in Concord about 6:40 p.m. Wednesday, shortly after he landed, police said.

Huey, who lives in Concord, is being held at Contra Costa County Jail on suspicion of stalking and violating a domestic violence restraining order. His bail was set at $150,000.

"It appears that the motivation behind this situation is the result of a failed domestic relationship," said Concord police Capt. Jim Lardieri.

The arrest came hours after police served Huey with the restraining order Wednesday at Buchanan Field, Lardieri said.

Eight passes
Later that evening, residents of the Canterbury Village neighborhood in Concord near Treat Boulevard and Clayton Road reported that a plane had made eight passes at low altitude, authorities said. Huey's ex-girlfriend lives in the area, police said.

Police believe Huey has buzzed the neighborhood in his distinctive blue-and-green, 1957 Beech numerous times since April 2008, after he and his girlfriend broke up. Huey declined requests for an interview today, and his attorney was not available for comment.

The alleged victim, a 59-year-old woman whom The Chronicle is not naming because of the nature of the case, obtained the restraining order in July 2008, according to records filed in Superior Court in Martinez.

She said Huey made a "passive display" of a handgun in 2007 and once told her if he wanted to do anything to her, he would just kill her, she said in her application for the order.

Restraining order
In April 2008, Huey allegedly called her and said, "What you did was wrong - you need to pay," records show.

A judge ordered Huey to stay 50 yards away from the woman. Concord police tried unsuccessfully to serve Huey with the order and weren't able to do so until Wednesday.

In the meantime, however, Canterbury Village residents repeatedly called police and airport officials to complain about the small airplane that would buzz the neighborhood. A neighbor of Huey's ex-girlfriend said Thursday that one recent flight happened at 4:30 a.m. and that the plane was no higher than 250 feet.

Another resident told authorities that he believed that a rock that shattered a car's windshield was linked to one of the flights because the vandalism apparently coincided with a flyover.

Earlier this month, residents reported finding flyers in the neighborhood that referred to the woman and included a racial slur. Police believe the flyers may have been dropped from the plane, authorities said.

Neighbors' complain
"We are an airport, so we do get noise complaints. That's not uncommon," said Keith Freitas, director of Buchanan Field. "The unusual part of this is, usually it's a one-time fly-by kind of thing.

"What the neighbors have been telling us is (the plane has) been circling or hovering or orbiting over their homes," Freitas said. "So it's a compounded nuisance, to say the least."



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