SPRING VALLEY – A 23-year-old man was booked on suspicion of burglary and possessing stolen checks early yesterday after being caught climbing out a window of a used-car shop.
Deputies responded to a burglar alarm at Bank Auto Sales on Spring Street at 3:15 a.m., and saw a window screen removed from the side of the business and a man's head poking out the window, said Sheriff's Sgt. Rose Kurupas. As the deputies pulled up, the man pulled his head back inside the building.
After a deputy with a police dog arrived, the two other deputies used a bullhorn to order the suspect to come out with the threat of sending the dog in. The intruder quickly climbed out of the window and was arrested, Kurupas said.
Deputies said the man was carrying several checks that appeared to have been stolen from the business.
– Mark Arner
Crash ends chase of stolen vehicle
EL CAJON – A 19-year-old Imperial Beach man was booked on suspicion of auto theft and evading an officer yesterday, after he led police on a brief freeway chase and crashed into another vehicle.
Officer J. Conley became suspicious about the car while he was patrolling about 7:30 a.m. on East Main Street, near Pepper Drive, an area where stolen cars are frequently abandoned. Conley checked the car's license plate on a computer and found it was had been reported stolen, said El Cajon police Lt. Fred Morrison.
Conley followed the car onto westbound Interstate 8, and after arranging for a backup patrol car, turned on his lights and siren to pull over the vehicle. The car slowed and nearly stopped near a ramp to the state Route 67 freeway, then suddenly accelerated and drove over a median to head north on Route 67. Conley and other patrol officers followed the speeding car with their lights and sirens on.
The driver of the car suddenly made a U-turn to head south in the northbound lanes of Route 67 and struck a northbound pickup towing a trailer. Several patrol cars surrounded the stolen vehicle and arrested the motorist without further incident, Morrison said.
– Mark Arner
