The driver of a stolen U-Haul truck who led authorities on a chase through Orange and Los Angeles counties Monday evening, slamming into a parked car at one point, was taken into custody.
Sky5 was overhead when the chase ended at 9:46 p.m. in Scherer Park, near Long Beach Boulevard and East 47th Street, where the driver had attempted to get the truck across a patch of grass. The vehicle dragged slowly through the grass since it had both front tires missing, apparently the result of spike strips law enforcement officials released during the chase to get the driver to stop.
According to California Highway Patrol, the U-Haul truck was stolen in Buena Park. During some moments of the chase, Sky5 video captured what appeared to be a cardboard sign with $19.99 written across it covering the truck’s windshield.
When the chase ended, two people emerged from the vehicle. At least six officers surrounded the driver’s side of the truck, one of them holding a tactical shield. One of the officers appeared to use an object to break the driver’s side window, and the officers together pulled the driver out of the seat and handcuffed him or her.
One of the officers pulled out another person from the passenger’s side and handcuffed them as well.
Earlier, the driver traveled along freeways and surface streets, sometimes making wide and potentially dangerous turns; the truck hit a parked vehicle and a pole in separate incidents. It also nearly struck another car while it was inside a gas station parking lot.
Forty minutes before the chase came to an end, the truck was driving along Harbor Boulevard in Santa Ana, making its way past Westminster Avenue into Garden Grove.
The truck continued onto the 22 Freeway in Garden Grove, later driving through the Seal Beach area before ending up on the northbound 405 Freeway in Long Beach.
At 9:21 p.m., the truck stopped for a moment before attempting to exit the freeway, briefly driving into some bushes before managing to get off the highway. Three minutes later, the U-Haul was on surface streets and entered a parking lot near Long Beach Boulevard and Wardlow Road.
The truck left the lot without stopping and started to drive northbound along Long Beach Boulevard.
As Sky5 was overhead at 9:28 p.m., the driver appeared to toss something out the window as he or she continued driving along Long Beach Boulevard. The truck’s front tire on the driver’s side appeared to be missing, with its bare metal rims scraping along the ground as the chase continued.
Later, both front tires appeared to be missing from the vehicle as it drove into a gas station parking lot near Long Beach Boulevard and Victoria Street just after 9:30 p.m., slamming into a pole and nearly hitting another vehicle before leaving.
Moments later, near Long Beach Boulevard and East 49th Street, the U-Haul rammed a parked car before driving off. In the minutes following, the truck entered a park and continued trying to evade authorities even as patrol cars got much closer physically to the stolen vehicle.
The driver started driving the truck onto some grass at the park but could not make it to a roadway, which appeared to be just a few feet away. Officers in patrol vehicles just behind the truck got out and walked toward the driver’s side of the stolen U-Haul, forcibly removing the driver and then the passenger before handcuffing both of them.