Car Thief

An auto thief escaped on foot Monday morning after smashing a stolen car into a Long Beach police cruiser and fleeing the scene, police said. At about 1:30 a.m. a stolen 1991 white Toyota Camry collided with the cruiser at 59 th Street and Elm Avenue, said Sgt. David Marander. The Camry's male driver fled. Police set up a perimeter around the area but did not find the suspect, and the search was canceled at about 4:30 a.m. An officer who inside the cruiser was taken to a hospital with complaints of pain and then released, Marander said.

An auto thief escaped on foot Monday morning after smashing a stolen car into a Long Beach police cruiser and fleeing the scene, police said. At about 1:30 a.m. a stolen 1991 white Toyota Camry collided with the cruiser at 59 th Street and Elm Avenue, said Sgt. David Marander. The Camry's male driver fled. Police set up a perimeter around the area but did not find the suspect, and the search was canceled at about 4:30 a.m. An officer who inside the cruiser was taken to a hospital with complaints of pain and then released, Marander said.

A man stole a car from a gas station, but soon abandoned it after discovering a baby in the backseat. Police believe that the car thief phoned in an anonymous tip telling them where to find the car and 6-month-old Shawn Epps. Shawn's father, 29-year-old Nathaniel Epps of Durham, told police the man took the car Saturday while he was using a telephone at the gas station. Epps said he was afraid the thief might "just throw him out of the car," but Shawn was unharmed.

There are as many visions of "On the Road," novelist Jack Kerouac's vivid anthem to the romance of youthful freedom and the getting of experience as there are readers. It's a book so influential yet so personal that each succeeding generation since its 1957 publication has picked it up and simply said, as one of its protagonists does, "Oh yes, oh yes, that's the way it goes. " Director Walter Salles has been one of those enthusiasts since he was an 18-year-old growing up in Brazil under a stifling military dictatorship.

An off-duty Huntington Beach police officer escaped injury when a car thief he was following took two shots at him Wednesday morning, police said. The officer, whose name was not released, was on his way to work in his own car about 6:10 a.m. when he spotted a stolen 1987 Chevrolet Camaro near Delaware Street and Adams Avenue, police said.

A suspected car thief, fleeing police, abandoned a car and ran through the patios and on the roofs of several homes in Buena Park before an armed resident stopped him and turned him over to police. The man stole a 1984 Toyota minivan from a bank parking lot on Garden Grove Boulevard on Friday, Garden Grove police said. Minutes later, Cypress police spotted the vehicle on Knott Avenue at the Buena Park border.

A suspected car thief was killed after he used his car to drag a police officer a short distance, and then drove into a power pole at a high rate of speed Monday afternoon, authorities said. A San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy pulled over a car for a traffic stop shortly before 3 p.m. at Foothill and Vineyard, said Robin Haynal, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department.

A suspected car thief who was chased by police from North Hills to the mid-Wilshire district then tried to hide in a tree was arrested early Wednesday after an officer dislodged him using a shotgun-propelled beanbag, police said. A police helicopter crew spotted Eugene Trionov, 21, of Hollywood in a backyard tree of a residence near Longwood Avenue and 9th Avenue about 4:15 a.m., police said.

A car thief sneaked into the showroom of a downtown car dealership, revved up an expensive car, smashed it through the plate-glass window and was last seen heading for the Harbor Freeway, authorities said today. Because an inventory was under way at the time of the theft, police said they are unsure what type of car was stolen from the showroom of Downtown L.A. Motors. But they theorized it was a Mercedes Benz or customized Nissan costing as much as $40,000, Lt. Paul Pesqueira said.

A Rancho Santa Margarita man was arrested Monday night after he allegedly stole a car from a man in a supermarket parking lot and led police on a chase until he crashed on Interstate 5. The car thief reportedly surprised Amril Patel, 37, of Lake Forest about 7:45 p.m. as he started to get into his car in the Vons parking lot on El Toro Road, Sheriff's Lt. Jay Mendez said. The thief ripped the keys from Patel's hand, pushed him backward and jumped into the car and took off, Mendez said.

New Mexico lawyer Arlon Stoker calls the case the most obvious example of mistaken identity, color blindness or just plain meanness, and most likely all of the above. Stoker has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on behalf of an elderly Native American couple and their three grandchildren who were pulled over at gunpoint in March by six New Mexico law enforcement officers searching for a car thief. The stop took place near the small community of Farmington. The driver, William Mike, who is 67 and suffers from chronic kidney disease and diabetes, was ordered to kneel on the cold, wet pavement while he was handcuffed, according to the suit.

It felt as though "Tallahassee" was one of the few (only?) episodes of "Once Upon a Time" that concentrated on one group, spotlighting only one character in flashback mode. Yes, this was Emma's time to shine -- and we finally get a look at who Henry's father is, in the personage of the thieving Mr. Neal Cassidy. First, back to the enchanted forest. Snow White, Aurora, Mulan and Emma argue briefly about who will go up the beanstalk with Captain Hook to face the giant and get the magic compass.

Who steals a car? Car thieves, to be sure, which is to say people who make a habit of taking vehicles that don't belong to them. But how about a father and son or a mother and her two children? What about three young women who'd never met before all hopping in the same stolen SUV, who all exchange names as they're being pulled over by police? What the true- crime series "Bait Car" (TruTV, 9 p.m. Tuesdays) aims to demonstrate, sometimes strenuously, is that there is no one sort of car thief.

A man killed in a frontyard in Maywood. A 16-year-old shot and killed in El Monte by police after a car chase. A man killed during a reported home-invasion robbery. It was a violent weekend in Los Angeles County, authorities said. In the first of the string of violent deaths, a 16-year-old youth, described by authorities as a gang member, was shot and killed Friday by a Baldwin Park police officer who believed the young man was reaching for a gun, authorities said.

A suspected car thief who was being booked in a Los Angeles County sheriff's station pulled a concealed handgun from his back brace early Monday and fired off two rounds before deputies subdued him, authorities said Wednesday. Christopher Broussard, 43, of Lancaster had been taken into custody when the car he was driving was reported stolen. When deputies searched him at the scene, they discovered he was wearing a back brace. When Broussard complained that the search was hurting his back, he was taken to Antelope Valley Hospital for an examination, and cleared for booking, according to the Sheriff's Department.

A car thief fled from a chain-reaction collision she caused on the Costa Mesa Freeway on Wednesday by stealing another car from the accident scene, authorities said. "Apparently she upgraded," said Officer Jennifer Hink, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol, noting the woman arrived in a 1993 Honda and left in a 2008 Toyota Camry. The accident occurred about 8 a.m. in the southbound lanes just north of Dyer Road. About two hours earlier, the woman had allegedly snatched the Honda from a Corona garage when its owner left its engine running to go back inside.

Smogdance, Claremont's most famous film festival, runs Friday through Sunday at Harvey Mudd College, with the attractions including 44 films and a reliable popcorn machine. "We've finally found a good place to rent the machine," festival director Charlotte Cousins said with a laugh, meaning that the popcorn problems of earlier festivals are just a memory. Smogdance, now in its 10th year, has become so well-established that it can afford to be choosy about its program.

A driver who was killed when officers opened fire Tuesday after a pursuit by Santa Ana police was identified as a parolee from Aliso Viejo, police said Wednesday. Kevin Rene Powell, 41, had a history of weapons and narcotics violations, and an arrest warrant had been issued for felony evading and narcotics violation, Cpl. Jose Gonzalez said. Powell allegedly stole a sport-utility vehicle Tuesday that had a tracking system that gave its position to a company. The company then notified police.