The pursuit of a stolen U-Haul truck for more than an hour culminated in the vehicle arson and the suspect’s arrest in the Bellflower area of California.
The incident began in the Buena Park area of Orange County shortly before 5 a.m. when the driver, aboard the truck with an attached trailer, took agents from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in a manhunt that spanned Orange and Los Angeles counties.
The suspect drove northbound on Highway 5, got off at the Atwater Village area and returned to the southbound highway. Just before 6 a.m., he got onto Highway 605 heading south in the Downey area.
The chase entered Highway 91 in Cerritos heading to Norwalk at approximately 6:02 a.m. Minutes later, the chase headed to Buena Park in Orange County before continuing on to Anaheim.
At approximately 6:13 a.m., the driver exited onto Euclid Street, in the Fullerton area, before returning to Highway 91 westbound.
NewsChopper 4 Alpha video showed that the front tires of the U-Haul truck had gone flat, possibly due to a strip of spikes that had been deployed by CHP on the highway as the chase was heading back to Buena Park.
At one point, the U-Haul truck was traveling at speeds of approximately 55-70 miles per hour before significantly slowing down to 15-25 MPH following the damage to both tires.
Shortly before 7 a.m., flames engulfed the right front tire of the U-Haul truck in dense black smoke that forced the driver to exit on Bellflower and leave the U-Haul in the area of Beach Street and Bellflower Boulevard.
Firefighters worked quickly to extinguish the fire as it consumed the U-Haul truck.
A driver who started a chase ended up crashing into another vehicle in the Van Nuys area, leaving a woman injured.
The driver was detained in the area of Park Street and Bellflower Boulevard after a brief chase on foot.
Authorities did not immediately reveal how the truck was stolen, but CHP says the chase began in Buena Park with Buena Park police around 4:52 a.m., following the report of the U-Haul theft.