Palo Alto woman reported missing in Lake County after berating Trump fan in MAGA hat found safe

A Bay Area woman who had been missing for days - last seen in Lake County last week after she made national headlines for shaming a man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat - is no longer missing, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Rebecca Parker Mankey is safe and authorities are no longer searching for her, the Sheriff’s Office announced Monday.

Mankey, of Palo Alto, had been seen leaving a friend’s house in Lake County on Thursday morning but didn’t return home to the Bay Area. The following day, law enforcement was alerted and family didn’t know where she was.

Mankey received national attention after she confronted a 74-year-old man wearing a MAGA hat in a Palo Alto coffee shop. In a Facebook post, she asked others to do the same to people wearing the red baseball caps, which bear the 2016 campaign slogan of President Donald Trump and have become a symbol of support among his followers.

That led to a release of her personal information on right-wing social media websites and threats of injury and death started coming to her and her family, according to news reports.

Lake County deputies began tracing her steps, including reports that she may have been headed for Washington state. Sheriff’s Lt. Corey Paulich declined to release further information Tuesday, citing her right to privacy.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.