Fountain Valley : New Police Task Force Arrests 3 in Parking Lot

Three men were arrested attempting to break into a new car one day after the city’s recently hired police chief inaugurated a task force to handle car thefts, a police spokesman said Monday.

Sgt. Larry Griswold said Tien K. Bui, 18, and Hoanh V. Bu, 18, both of Garden Grove, and Dam Q. Nguyen, 20, of Santa Ana were arrested after they allegedly had broken into a car in a movie theater parking lot.

The arrests were made Saturday night, a day after new Police Chief Elvin G. Miali kicked off LEAP, or Law Enforcement Apprehension Program.

The theory behind the new program is to have a six-member team of senior officers act as a citywide roving squad, targeting high-crime areas, Griswold said.

On Saturday night, two task force members spotted the three men in a car in an unlit parking lot in the 17000 block of Brookhurst Street, where about 20 car thefts and auto burglaries have occurred recently.

The suspects’ car was driven slowly through the aisles before the headlights were shut off, Griswold said. As plainclothes officers approached, they saw that one man had opened the new car with a pry bar, he said.

The three men were arrested without incident and taken to County Jail and booked on suspicion of auto burglary.

“The key is that the officers were on foot and in plainclothes,” Griswold said. “A patrolman could have stopped them, but the suspects wouldn’t have broken into the car if they saw a black-and-white (police car) drive by.”

Miali, who joined the department on Aug. 18 after 21 years with the San Gabriel Police Department, was hired after Fountain Valley went nearly a year without a police chief. He succeeds Marv Fortin, who retired.