Suspected Purse Snatcher Arrested When He Gets Stuck in Traffic with Police Chief

A suspected purse snatcher sped off into heavy morning traffic today, and had the misfortune of pulling onto a crowded freeway right in front of a top official of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The department chief was monitoring dispatch radio channels, and coordinated the arrest of the accused robber, Aaron Nunez, 20, of Sylmar, deputies said.

Chief Jacques “Anthony” LaBerge heard radio dispatches that a woman had been robbed of her purse by a man in the 19300 block of Golden Valley Road in Canyon Country.

The broadcast said the suspect car was a grey BMW heading towards the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway, deputies said.

The robbery suspect vehicle merged onto the Antelope Valley Freeway at Newhall Avenue, right in front of the vehicle LaBerge was in.

As LaBerge called for backup units, he followed the BMW south through Newhall Pass, onto the Golden State (5) and then the Foothill (210) freeways.

Heavy morning traffic made it impossible for Santa Clarita sheriff’s units to get into place, so the sheriff’s office pulled deputies from the security detail at Olive View Hospital in Pacoima and had them head to the freeway.

The suspect vehicle was stopped at the Polk Street off-ramp from the Foothill Freeway in Sylmar, and Nunez was arrested without incident, deputies said.

City News service