Reported Garden Grove carjacker leads police on pursuit before arrest in Long Beach

A 50-year-old Garden Grove resident accused of carjacking a delivery truck led law enforcement on a crash-filled, 30-minute pursuit on Saturday, Dec. 23, before being arrested in Long Beach, police said.

The truck, registered to Fleetgenius in Florida, was stolen shortly before 5 p.m. in the 12000 block of Beach Boulevard, a Garden Grove Police Department news release said.

Sgt. Nick Jensen, in an interview, said the victim was unloading something when he heard the door open. He went to the cab and saw the suspect climb in. They struggled for control of the door. The suspect shut the door, started the engine and drove off as the victim fell.

The victim was not injured.

“He’s lucky he didn’t get run over by the truck,” Jensen said.

Officers found the truck a short time later and tried to pull it over.

But the driver sped away, fleeing into oncoming traffic, colliding with police and civilian vehicles and driving over curbs. At one point the truck was smoking. One of the front tires appeared to have deflated.

The truck finally crashed to a stop at about 5:40 p.m. in the 200 block of West Wardlow Road near Pacific Avenue in Long Beach.

The driver initially refused to get out until officers fired gas into the cab and sent a K-9 into the cab. The man was then arrested and taken to a hospital before being booked into jail.