Jacob Castroll, owner of Castroll Insurance Services and a reserve deputy for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, died on Aug. 11 while competing in the 2017 World Police & Fire Games near Castaic Lake. He was 68.
Castroll suffered a heart attack while riding his bike, said Deputy Ryan Rouzan, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman. He fell off and hit his head. Medical personnel treated Castroll at the scene and he was later transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Castroll joined the Sheriff’s Department as a reserve deputy while in his 50s and trained successfully with men half his age.
“There was a fire close to my house, and a sheriff came and knocked on our door in the middle of the night in order to evacuate us and the rest of the neighbors,” he told the Journal in a 2015 interview. “He had actually saved our lives. … I decided … to volunteer and help them.
“For three years, I volunteered in the civil department of the sheriff’s station. I did patrols in the neighborhood, things like that. And then, one of the officers told me, ‘Listen, you are still young and healthy. Come and join us.’ I thought to myself, ‘Why not?’ I saw it as a challenge.”
Castroll continued to run his insurance business while devoting 20 hours a month to city patrols and a DUI check point in Malibu. Later, he was in charge of background checks of volunteers at the downtown jail.
Born in Russia, Castroll made aliyah with his parents in 1961 and immigrated to United States in 1971. He married Rudi Tesler 47 years ago and had three children: Victor, Lea and Rica.
Rabbi Yossi Baitelman of Chabad of Studio City delivered the eulogy. The funeral at Mount Sinai in Hollywood drew dozen of deputies from the Sheriff’s Department in the Malibu/Lost Hills station.
— Ayala Or-El, Contributing Writer
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