4 Teens Arrested For Allegedly Stealing Cars In Santa Cruz County

Four teenage boys were arrested for allegedly stealing cars in Watsonville early Tuesday morning and one of the boys led a car chase that went as far as Gilroy, a police sergeant said.

Shortly after 4 a.m., officers responded to a reported attempted carjacking in the 800 block of Vista Montana Drive near East Lake Avenue, but when they reached the scene they were unable to find the suspects, police Sgt. David Rodriguez said.

A witness reported the four male suspects fled in a white four-door Honda, Rodriguez said. About half an hour later, officers were dispatched to a report of two masked people who stepped out of a white Honda and took a box truck from a parking lot in the 100 block of Hangar Way near Watsonville Community Hospital, police said. The masked suspects were later determined to be two boys, ages 16 and 17, Rodriguez said.

Two other boys, ages 14 and 15, stayed inside the Honda and followed the truck as it fled the parking lot, according to Rodriguez. Shortly before 5 a.m., a police sergeant saw both the Honda and truck in the Corralitos area, an unincorporated community roughly 5 miles north of Watsonville, police said.

The sergeant tried to conduct a traffic stop on the truck but the suspect driver, the 17-year-old boy, allegedly did not yield and led officers on a pursuit, according to police. The chase went to Gilroy and back to Watsonville, where the officers used a spike strip to stop the truck in the 200 block of Clifford Avenue, Rodriguez said.

The suspects in the truck attempted to run away, but were quickly apprehended by police, according to Rodriguez. A semi-automatic pistol found by officers in the area where the foot pursuit occurred may have been discarded by one of the suspects, the sergeant said.

A Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputy found the other two suspects in the Honda at Amesti Elementary School at Amesti Road and Green Valley roads just outside Watsonville and took them into custody, Rodriguez said.

The deputy checked the vehicle and learned it was stolen the day before out of Watsonville, the sergeant said. Inside the Honda, investigators found ammunition that matched the pistol recovered in Watsonville, police said.

Officers from the California Highway Patrol and Gilroy police also assisted in the incidents, according to police. All four suspects were booked into county juvenile hall on suspicion of vehicle theft, Rodriguez said.

The 17-year-old boy was also arrested on suspicion of felony pursuit, according to Rodriguez.

Anyone with information on the cases is asked to call Watsonville police dispatch at (831) 471-1151, investigations bureau at (831) 768-3352 or anonymous tip line at (831) 768-3544.

-Bay City News