A pickup driver knocked down a utility pole, cut across sidewalks and lawns in front of homes, and stopped to pick up a bag at a gas station during an unusual chase that came to a bizarre end Tuesday in an Alhambra neighborhood.
The chase began after a report of a stolen vehicle. Details about the auto theft were not immediately available.
The driver went through several stoplights in Alhambra and cut off other drivers trying to turn at intersections during the chase that stayed in the same general area of the community east of Los Angeles for about an hour.
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The pickup backed into a utility pole in an alley, knocking it to the ground, and narrowly missed other vehicles. The driver went onto a sidewalk and over lawns in front of homes to avoid fire engine partially blocking an intersection.
Law enforcement vehicles appeared to drop back as the driver continued circling around the same neighborhood, stopping at times in the middle of the street.
In another twist, the driver pulled into a gas station, picked up a bag on the ground and got back in the pickup. An employee at the station told NBCLA the plastic bag contained clothes and handkerchiefs.
At East McLean Street and North Garfield Avenue, the driver abandoned the pickup and ran onto the grounds of an apartment complex. Several people confronted the man and appeared to restrain him in a swivel chair on a patch of grass outside the apartments.
"The man just grabbed him just kind of spun him around," said witness George Ratkobich. "There happened to be a broken down chair on the lawn. He sat him on the chair and held him on the chair, and the girl was trying to get him to let him go."
Law enforcement officers arrived and took him into custody.
