If it's not a typo, maybe it's a kind of "anacolute" or something like that: the author begins writing the sentence using a tense, in this case past tense, and then, in the same sentence, changes the tense, using a present (the present can be used with a past meaning when telling stories). However, if that were the case, it would be a rare one, anacolutes are usually different, they are represented by the interruption of a certain construction in a sentence and its substitution with another construction.