AZUSA >> Police in Azusa arrested an auto theft suspect Wednesday morning after he jumped from the still-moving vehicle and tried to make his escape on foot, authorities said.
The incident began about 10 a.m. when an officer on patrol near Citrus Avenue and Basline Road spotted a passing car that had been reported stolen in Ontario earlier in the morning, Azusa police Sgt. Xavier Torres said.
“As the Officer attempted to catch up to the vehicle, it entered a residential tract in the unincorporated area of Azusa and began to speed up,” Torres said in a written statement. “As the Officer was about to stop the vehicle, the driver jumped out of the moving vehicle in the area of Viceroy (Avenue) and Ghent (Street) and began to run away.”
The abandoned stolen car continued until it went up onto a sidewalk and came to a stop in a residential front yard, Torres said.
The driver ran through several backyards before they found and arrested the suspect hiding in a nearby yard with help from alert neighbors and a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department helicopter, Torres said.
The suspect, whose name was not available Wednesday afternoon, was booked on suspicion of auto theft and resisting arrest, police said. He was expected to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail pending his initial court appearance, scheduled Tuesday in West Covina Superior Court.