Teen-agers Lead Police on 2-Hour, 2-County Chase

For two hours, four teen-agers led sheriff’s deputies, local police and California Highway Patrol officers on a breakneck chase along winding Ortega Highway through southern Orange County and into southwestern Riverside County Tuesday before running out of gas and luck.

Deputies arrested the four teen-agers on a long list of charges, including joy riding, drunk driving and burglary.

The episode began in San Juan Capistrano, where Orange County sheriff’s deputies began chasing a Honda Civic with no license plates. The car led the deputies over the Santa Ana Mountains on treacherous Ortega Highway at speeds up to 100 m.p.h.

Riverside County sheriff’s deputies took up the chase near the county line and followed the Honda through Lake Elsinore and Perris, Hemet, Winchester and Sun City.

Then the Honda headed north on the Escondido Freeway (Interstate 215)--but in the southbound lanes. It made an abrupt U-turn near Perris and headed south again.

After speeding back through Romoland, Sun City and Winchester, the Honda, out of gas, rolled to a stop at Murrieta Hot Springs.

The chase ended with no injuries or property damage, police said.

The Honda’s driver, a 16-year-old from Lake Elsinore, was arrested on suspicion of joy riding in his mother’s car, evading officers, vehicle tampering, drunk driving, driving without a license, being a runaway, possessing stolen property and burglary, according to the spokesman for the Riverside County sheriff.

Two 15-year-old girls were arrested on suspicion of joy riding, vehicle tampering, possessing stolen property and being runaways. Also arrested on those charges--plus suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of minors--was 18-year-old Carl Vicnaire of Lake Elsinore.

Some of the charges stemmed from several thefts in the San Juan Capistrano area, the Sheriff’s Department spokesman said, but no details of those incidents were available.