Per Holes, EAR might have also been a part-time security guard: https://twitter.com/PaulHoles/status/995665087380635649

Clearly something lured EAR to Stockton in spring summer of '77 followed by Modesto, Davis, Concord, Danville, San Jose etc for short-ish but regular periods of time. I think these locations were a long way from Sacramento just to be prowling. It would also be difficult to explain to your wife where the hell you were all night otherwise. Too risky to lie about your police schedule (assuming JJD is proven to be EAR.) What if she runs into a coworker in your small home town and you get caught in a lie?

Reasons it might make sense:

• Gives you ample un/lightly- supervised time during prime stalking hours.
• Gives you an excuse to be gone far from home all night(s) long.
• Gives you an excuse to be in the general area at night if questioned locally.
• Presumably easy to land the gig if you're ex-military and active LE.
• Could explain the generic non-LE badge dropped in the neighbors' yard next to the victims of attack #37 in Concord.

It'd be interesting to known how job sites would hire guards back then. Would they go through specific security contractors? How would they typically source employees? Would it be common for different construction companies all across the East Bay and Central Valley to use the same security company? Lots of questions maybe someone here can answer.

Edit: Further, could the same company possibly employing him as a part-time guard up North have employed him in Goleta? EAR didn't skip a beat in his activity. He was likely still prowling in the East Bay through August and prowling activity in Goleta started up in September. Finding a completely new job far away might be challenging if you're fired from your LE job. And even if that didn't cause a complication, instantly having a new job down south so soon would be slightly unusual. If we could find a company that would source security guards for job sites (and/or other locations-- maybe airports too?) in both NorCal and SoCal we might be able to make the elusive Santa Barbara County link.