Drag Track : Car Thief Wins Race Into Arms of the Law

With a caravan of angry people on his tail, a thief who had just stolen a car at a gas station headed for the Buena Park Police Station Thursday “for his own protection,” police said. It was amazing he got that far.

The car had been stolen off a jack and was missing a front tire and wheel.

“Davy Crockett could have found this guy,” said Buena Park Police Officer Terry Branum. “There’s a 2 1/2-mile white line from the gas station right to the police station where the brake drum had torn the asphalt. . . . We have criminals well-trained here.”

Patrick Kevin West, 25, an unemployed laborer of Buena Park, was arrested on suspicion of grand theft and booked into the Orange County Jail, where he was held late Thursday on $10,000 bail.

Tire Missing

Branum said West told detectives that he merely wanted to “borrow the car” to get to Desert Hot Springs. And he apparently didn’t notice that the tire was missing when he drove it off the jack and out of Coyote Chevron gas station on Beach Boulevard at about 10:15 a.m., Branum said.

Station manager Carl Rozatti took after him.

“He had a pretty good lead on me, but I was able to catch up with him because I just followed the mark on the asphalt from the front brake rotor disc scraping the ground,” Rozatti said.

“About a mile away, at a signal, I jumped out of my truck and started pounding on the car. I used some words I don’t want to give you, but more or less I was telling him to get out of the car or I’d hurt him.”

Rozatti approached other motorists and enlisted their help. A caravan of people--”one of them was a customer of mine who recognized me,” Rozatti said--joined the chase of the weaving, white 1977 Chevrolet Caprice along side streets and boulevards.

A tow truck driver used his radio to call police, Rozatti said. But after the car drove through road barricades detouring traffic from freeway construction, and the pursuit reached speeds of 60 m.p.h., all but Rozatti lost the trail.

In his four-wheel-drive pickup, Rozatti said, he drove over concrete center dividers and traveled the wrong direction trying to keep up with the lopsided car, which briefly dragged a wooden detour sign on its front windshield.

Ran a Red Light

At one point, Rozatti said, the car thief ran a red light, cut through a gas station and nearly hit two children.

“I have a three-quarter-ton truck, and I thought about hitting the car to disable it so he wouldn’t hit anybody,” Rozatti said, “but if he was already driving a car without a front tire I didn’t figure that would stop him. Besides, it was my customer’s car and I only wanted to get it back for him.”

Coming out of two big road dips, both cars were airborne. When the Caprice landed the second time, Rozatti said, “it looked like it just wouldn’t run anymore.”

Moments later, Branum said the Caprice lurched into the police station’s back parking lot.

“Everyone heard the sound of metal scraping through the parking lot and we ran outside.” Branum said. Detectives were stifling their laughter as they listened to the frightened man.

Go Directly to Jail

“He said he was fearful of these guys chasing him so he came to the police station for his own protection. . . . We have them well trained. When they commit a crime, they just come directly here.”

John O. Kirk, 78, a recently retired minister of the Trinity Baptist Church in Buena Park, learned of his car’s exciting journey when he arrived to pick it up before noon.

He had brought the car in to have a flat tire repaired, according to Kevin Clark, 22, assistant manager of the station who also chased the suspect. The Caprice, somewhat the worse for wear, now needs a new vinyl roof, transmission, brakes and body work--in addition to the tire.

“Mr. Kirk is a good customer, and he understands that these things can just happen,” Clark said.

In fact, Kirk said his faith in the mechanics has only been bolstered by the episode.

“Did it tear the transmission, too? Geez,” Kirk said. “I took my car in to have it checked, and I went across the street to have breakfast, and when I got back they told me that my car had been stolen.

“I suppose that’s happened before lots of times . . . though the worst I ever had stole was a lawnmower.”

“That’s a lovely service station,” Kirk added. “I’ve been a customer there for a number of years. This young fellow Carl, the manager, he’s the hero.”