Dog Finds Suspect : Police Search Paralyzes Neighborhood

A robbery in a bank parking lot Monday set off a police search that paralyzed a Canoga Park neighborhood before a suspect was sniffed out of hiding by a police dog.

Los Angeles police arrested David Main, 22, of Granada Hills, but said two other suspects escaped, apparently taking $1,500 in cash and about $60,000 in checks.

Detectives said three men followed a 23-year-old woman from her office at a hospital corporation to a Security Pacific Bank branch on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, where they grabbed her and seized several bags of money.

The robbers drove off in two cars, one of them bright orange, Lt. William Gaida said. Moments later, officers spotted the orange car and pursued it, he said.

The chase ended in on Lubao Avenue when the suspect’s car jumped a curb and ran into a concrete-block wall. The driver jumped over a fence and disappeared into a backyard, Gaida said.

Officers twice fired a shotgun at the man as he appeared to reach for a weapon in his waistband, Gaida said. Both shots missed, he said.

About 40 officers sealed off a five-block area of about 150 homes for about two hours while, with guns drawn, they used dogs and a helicopter to search yards. Residents of the area--Lubao, Oakdale, Madora, Hatillo, and Quartz avenues between Valerio and Covello streets--were ordered to stay inside their houses and away from windows.

“I didn’t go through Vietnam to come home and get shot. I did what the officers said, except to peek out the front window a few times,” said Lee Aimesburg, who had a direct view of the manhunt from his brother-in-law’s house on Madora.

The search ended when a 4-year-old police dog named Erko discovered the suspect hiding beneath a house trailer behind an an unoccupied home on Madora. Police said they found no weapon on Main.

Main was arrested on suspicion of robbery. Police said there also was an outstanding arrest warrant against Main for violation of parole stemming from a burglary conviction. He was being held at the West Valley police station Monday night.

After the arrest, police remained in the area, looking, without success, for weapons and the loot from the robbery.

Fred Rubio, whose front-yard fence was smashed by the suspect’s car and whose backyard fence was peppered by police shotgun fire, served ice water to officers after the dragnet ended.

Rubio apologized to officers because his two dogs apparently looked the other way when the suspect raced through the backyard--but snarlingly kept police out.

Police did not identify the woman who was robbed.