Automobile Thefts Los Angeles

Los Angeles police announced Tuesday that they have no evidence to connect four men arrested last week to a string of follow-home robberies that struck the San Fernando Valley during the busy holiday shopping season. Officers from the LAPD's elite Metropolitan Division arrested four men, ages 15, 16, 21 and 25 on suspicion of auto theft Thursday after they were spotted in a stolen vehicle near the intersection of Nordhoff Street and Tampa Avenue, police said.

The number of reported crimes by precinct from Jan. 1 through June 30.

Filiberto Arregui was charged Monday with car theft and evading police. But the latter count seems open to interpretation--he was arrested after leading police on a 10-minute car chase that ended at the back door of the West Valley Police Station.

A man caught trying to steal a pickup truck in Panorama City was shot in the thigh by the truck's owner, who was ordering him to stop, police said Wednesday. Philip Meza, 27, of Pacoima was treated and released at Holy Cross Medical Center after the shooting and arrested on suspicion of grand theft auto, police said. The shooting occurred in the 8400 block of Ventura Canyon Avenue about 10:30 p.m.

A shopping mall Santa praised as a hero and the woman he purportedly saved from robbers in a parking lot were acquaintances before the incident, they both have confirmed, and he has a history of involvement in highly publicized events. Los Angeles police are investigating the incident as an attempted robbery but also plan to look into the possibility that it was staged, Detective Bobby Leon said Friday.

A North Hollywood man pleaded guilty Friday to committing eight robberies--including a carjacking--during a 10-day period last month. Arthur Thomas, 40, is expected to receive an eight-year prison sentence during a June 25 hearing before Municipal Judge Jessica Perrin Silvers. Thomas was arrested May 18 after a high-speed chase in a stolen car that ended in Hollywood. He had committed four robberies in less than one hour.