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Stolen U-Haul Involved in Car Chase Across City
A U-Haul stolen from Palmdale is currently involved in a chase with California Highway Patrol officers. It made its way through Santa Clarita and headed south to Downtown streets and then westbound on the 10 Freeway to Santa Monica. As of 4:!7 p.m., the chase moved onto the Pacific Coast Highway and into Malibu, as seen live on KCAL9-TV.
The driver is identified as a female, who can be smoking a cigarette (presumably), but no other information is known about her identity, according to police. She's taken the U-Haul up to speeds in excess of 80 miles per hour in the chase that has lasted over an hour.
The New Yorker called these chases "L.A.'s ultimate reality show." In their 2006 article, California had 7,321 pursuits with 5,596 taking place in LA County, according to '04 stats. A quarter of chases end in crashes and 15 people die on average in Los Angeles.
UPDATES ON CHASE LOCATION
- 4:32 p.m. @ Latigo Canyon on PCH (has waved to helicopters twice)
- 4:37 p.m. @ Zuma Beach area
- 4:40 p.m. @ Trancas Canyon (lots of onlookers plus a kid playing with a pilates ball in the street)
- 4:48 p.m. CHP announces plans to use a spike strip at unknown location
- 4:51 p.m. Approaching Ventura County Line
- 4:53 p.m. @ Point Mugu
- 4:53 p.m. Awesome quote from KCAL9: "this is not a fuel efficient vehicle."
- 4:55 p.m. Apparently approaching spike strip
- 4:56 p.m. @ Point Mugu, approaching Port Hueneme and out of the beach area
- 4:58 p.m. @ Point Mugu Naval Air Station (Driver sees spike strip, she sees it, evades it by going to wrong side of road and now back)
- 4:59 KCAL9 Quote: "Wow, way to go!... She really did an excellent job of driving" (it was a pretty insane moment, if you saw it)
- 5:02 p.m. @ Camarillo
- 5:06 p.m. Blowing through red lights in Camarillo
- 5:07 p.m. @ Oxnard (makes U-Turn and heads onto unknown street)
- 5:09 p.m. Squeezes through vehicles stopped in traffic, may have clipped one car
- 5:10 p.m. @ Rose and Auto Center Rd. in Oxnard
- 5:12 p.m. @ Approaching Santa Paula
- 5:13 p.m. @ Twitter user tells koolbobs tells us gives us a first hand account from earlier in the chase: "she flew by me while I was cycling on the LA River bike path"
- 5:15 p.m. @ Somis (Looks like tire problems, she is weaving slightly but abruptly)
- 5:16 p.m. Appears she's actually intentional weaving back and forth
- 5:17 p.m. Stops truck, books it on foot, tries to get into another car, car books it, she continues to run and police tackle her
- 5:18 p.m. In cuffs and in the back of a CHP patrol car
- 5:20 p.m. It appears that the U-Haul truck is empty from CBS2's helicopter angle
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