Pursing a Mercedes-Benz leaving the scene of a reported home burglary Friday afternoon, officers arrested three men believed to be members of a crew involved in multiple home burglaries in the San Fernando Valley, police said.
The arrests were made in three different locations as occupants of the car bailed out during the course of the pursuit.
It began in the Dona neighborhood of Studio City, after a resident reported seeing a group of men going around to the back of a neighbor's home. A responding police helicopter spotted a group of men leaving that address on Dona Dorotea Drive and getting into the late model Benz, and when it failed to pull over for a patrol unit, the pursuit began, said Sgt. Leonid Tsap of the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood Division.
The Benz headed south through Laurel Canyon into Hollywood, then continued south on Fairfax Ave., one occupant seen exiting near Willoughby Boulevard, another just beyond the Farmers market at Third Street.
The pursuit finally ended in Koreatown when the Benz veered onto the sidewalk of Sixth Street between Harvard Boulevard and Kingsley Drive and crashed into a tree.
The driver jumped out and ran, making it across busy Sixth and around the corner onto Harvard before officers caught up and took him into custody. At the two locations where the others got out, officers set up perimeters, and with the assistance of police dogs, arrested two men believed to be the others from the Benz.
Like much of California in recent years, the Valley has witnessed a surge in home burglaries by crews using a similar MO.
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The targets generally are suburban homes in more affluent neighborhoods, the burglars often dressing nicely and renting or borrowing new cars to better blend in. The burglars pick houses where it's believed no one is home, knock on the door to make sure, then look for a rear entry.
"We have some evidence of burglaries inside the vehicle," Tsap said.
The Benz is registered to the mother of one of the suspects, he said.
Exactly a week ago, a task force of 18 law enforcement agencies conducted a series of raids, arresting 13 alleged members of a South Los Angeles street gang suspected of carrying out hundreds if not thousands of home burglaries in Los Angeles and neighboring counties.
